FROM THK ' BOOK OF DEER.'
THE CELTIC CHURCH
IN SCOTLAND; '
BEING AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN SCOTLAND DOWN TO
THE DEATH OF SAINT MARGARET.
JOHN DOWDEN, D.D.,
BISHOP OF EDINBURGH.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE.
LONDON :
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CR
43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.G.
BRIGHTON : 135, NORTH STREET
NEW YORK: E. & J. B. YOUNG
1894.
KN
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON & BUNGAY.
PREFACE.
THE following pages, some of which were read
in a series of Lectures delivered in the Chapter
House of St. Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, are
intended chiefly for those who, while possessing
such general information in regard to the history
of Scotland as may be reasonably looked for in
persons of education, have not made any special
acquaintance with the early history of the Church
in this country. I have also, however, had in view
the interests of Theological Students, and those of
the Clergy and others, who may be induced to
investigate the subject more minutely for them
selves ; and I have accordingly treated with some
fullness the original sources of our knowledge in
respect to the Celtic Church in Scotland, and have
attempted to estimate their value.
For the sake of both classes of readers, I have
in many places thought it an advantage to allow
the original records to tell their own story. A modern
rehandling of the contents of the ancient documents is,
no doubt, to a very large extent inevitable, but it
is not unattended with loss ; and as far as it is
VI PREFACE.
feasible there is a real gain in coming, so far as may
be, into direct contact with our historical sources.
The true character of the episcopate in the Celtic
Church, having been long the subject of an animated
controversy, not yet wholly extinct, has been dealt
with at a greater length in Chapter XIV. than could
otherwise be reasonably claimed for it.
It is hoped that the chapter on the archaeology
of the Celtic Church may serve to interest some
who may be impatient of the treatment of merely
documentary evidence.
The fact that the early chapters were delivered
as Lectures may be offered as some excuse for the
somewhat colloquial style in which they are cast.
I have to express my thanks to Rev. H. J. Lawlor,
B.D., Senior Chaplain of Edinburgh Cathedral, for the
care he has bestowed upon the revision of the proofs,
and for many valuable suggestions ; but it would be
unfair to him to hold him in any degree responsible
for the statements of fact and opinion in the following
pages. My thanks are also due to the Rev. Edmund
McClure for the valuable Appendix IV. on the epigraph
of one of the Kirkmadrine stones.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The Roman Possession of Scotland — The Christian
Monumental Sculptures at Kirkmadrine, Wigtonshire
—The Native Peoples — Their Religion — The Labours
of St. Ninian ............ p. u
CHAPTER II.
St. Patrick a Child of the British Church in Scotland
P. 33
CHAPTER III.
St. Palladius, and his Disciples, St. Ternan and St. Serf
—The Origin of the Myth of a non-Episcopal Church
in Ancient Scotland ............ p. 40
CHAPTER IV.
St. Mungo (or Kentigern) ......... A 49
CHAPTER V.
The Historical Character of the Documentary Authorities
for the Lives of St. Ninian and St. Mungo p. 59
CHAPTER VI.
St. Columba ............... p. So
CHAPTER VII.
lona : its Physical Features — The Constitution of the
Columban "Family" — Life in the Brotherhood at
lona .................. p. 122
CHAPTER VIII.
The Historical Character of Adamnan's Life of St.
Columba: The Miraculous Element ... p. 135
Vlll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
St. Adamnan — lona in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries
P> H4
CHAPTER X.
Influence of lona in the South : St. Cuthbert in Lo
thian p. 157
CHAPTER XL
The End of the Columban Episcopate in Northumbria —
The Diocese of Lindisfarne north of the Tweed —
Melrose — Coldingham — Abercorn — The See of Can
dida Casa as an English Foundation ... p. 177
CHAPTER XII.
The Church in Scotland in the Ninth, Tenth, and
Eleventh Centuries — The Culdees ... p. 193
CHAPTER XIII.
The Faith and Ritual of the Celtic Church—The Tonsure
and Easter Computation ... ... ... p. 208
CHAPTER XIV.
The Episcopate in the Celtic Church ... ... p. 250
CHAPTER XV.
St. Margaret of Scotland /. 267
CHAPTER XVI.
The Archaeology of the Celtic Church in Scotland in its
Historical Relations p. 292
APPENDICES.
1. The Alt-its of St. Columba A321
II. The Legend of St. Regulus 329
III. St. Margaret's Gospel Book 331
IV. The Kirkmadrine Epigraph 333
Index
335
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. Representation of St. Luke from the Book of Deer.
The square ornament on the breast of the figure has
been supposed to represent a case, containing the
Gospel, suspended from the neck ... Frontispiece
2. Sculptured Stone at Kirkmadrine, Wigtonshire p. 17
3. Remains of the ancient Celtic Church on Eilean-na-
Naoimh, from a photograph in the possession of Dr.
J. Anderson, Keeper of the National Museum of the
Antiquaries of Scotland /-Hj
4. Double Bee-hive Cell on Eilean-na-Naoimh, from a
photograph in the possession of Dr. J. Anderson
P> 293
5. (a) The Bell of St. Ninian (hammered iron). (£) The
Bell of St. Fillan (cast bronze) p. 309
6. The " Bachul More." The metal covering has almost
disappeared, many rivets are still visible ... p. 313
THE EARLY ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Stanford^ Geoq^Estab.
THE
CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
CHAPTER I.
THE ROMAN POSSESSION OF SCOTLAND — THE CHRIS
TIAN MONUMENTAL SCULPTURES AT KIRKMADRINE,
WIGTONSHIRE THE LABOURS OF ST. NINIAN.
WITH a view to our understanding aright the early
history of Christianity in Scotland, it is well to recall
to mind that the present boundary line between Scot
land and England had no existence in the days of the
Roman occupation of Britain, nor indeed for many
centuries after the last of the Roman legions had
quitted the country for ever. The whole island as far
as the line between the Firths of Forth and Clyde was
known as Britain : north of that line was the region
known as Caledonia, or Alban.
The Roman conquest of the island, so fruitful in
the beneficent results of civilization, was not per
manently effective in the most northern part. In
Edinburgh we are close by the furthest outposts of
the Empire. The line of forts originally constructed
12 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
by Agricola, and strengthened in the reign of An
toninus Pius, some fifty years later, by the great
rampart stretching from Borrowstowness on the Forth
to Kilpatrick on the Clyde, marked for a time the
practical limits of the Roman occupation. Occasional
military demonstrations, partial and temporary con
quests, marchings, counter-marchings, the construction
of roads, and encampments of troops in the regions
north of the wall might overawe, but could not civi
lize, the barbarian tribes. In Scotland, north of the
wall, there are to be found only some few scanty
indications of the existence of Roman civilization.
The rampart of Antonine was not continuously,
or for any very lengthened period, maintained as a
complete barrier against the barbarian warriors of the
north. The northern boundary of the Roman occu
pation shifted backwards and forwards. We have no
reason to suppose that the part of Scotland south of
the line that joins the Firths of Forth and Clyde was
for any great length of time continuously subjected
to Roman control and the beneficent influence of
Roman civilization. For long stretches of time the
northern boundary was drawn back from the wall of
Antonine to the defences of the far greater work —
far greater in every sense — the wall of Hadrian,
extending between Tynemouth and the Solway, whose
massive remains still fill the visitor with wonder, and
convey to him a sense not otherwise to be gained in
this country of the vast resources and vast power of
the Roman Empire. It is south of this southern wall
we must look for such remains of civilized life as
THE ROMAN POSSESSION OF SCOTLAND. 13
need for their growth a long-sustained feeling of
security.
It was not till approaching the time of the final
withdrawal of the Roman troops from Britain that by
a great effort of an able commander the debatable
land between the two walls — the scene of many con
tests between the barbarians and the soldiers of the
Empire — was again subdued, and formed (A.D. 368)
into the fifth Province of Roman Britain, Valentia
by name. Unhappily, at longest, only some forty
years were now to pass before the urgent necessities
of the Empire nearer her centre and capital de
manded, for her own protection, the recall of the
Roman troops from Britain. In that interval there
was little time for doing anything considerable toward
the civilizing or Christianizing of the half-subjugated
and ever-turbulent British tribes between the walls.
South of the southern wall, the wall of Hadrian,;
when subsequently the Saxons and Angles ravaged
the land, it was the invasion of a Christian country
by a heathen foe. During the Roman occupation, :
Roman Britain, speaking generally, had been Chris- '
tianized. But, in default of positive evidence, it
would be hazardous to venture on any large infer
ences from this fact as to the spread of Christianity,
even in that part of Scotland where Roman influence
was most felt. It is, however, surely not unreason
able to conjecture that the Roman Christians in the
northern settlements, when opportunities offered from
time to time, would not have been so entirely de
ficient in missionary zeal as to make no effort to win
14 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
to Christ the natives with whom they were brought in
contact.
The researches of archaeologists have not dis-
r covered any Roman remains in Scotland that can with
absolute confidence be assigned to the Christianity of
/ the Roman occupation ; but there exist some two or
three that may possibly belong to that early period.
The most ancient Christian memorials in Scotland
• (indeed perhaps we may say in Great Britain) 1 are
certain monumental stones in Wigtonshire. Their
characteristics are such as place it beyond question
that, if they do not actually belong to the period of
the Roman occupation, they can be removed from it
only by a short interval, and really represent Romano-
British Christianity. The forms of the incised letters
of the inscriptions, and the peculiar symbol that com
bines the sacred monogram with the penal cross,
which is well known to students of Christian archae
ology, and is supposed to have been introduced about
the time of Constantine,2 are most certainly of a
1 "Nowhere in Great Britain is there a Christian record so
ancient as the grey, weather-beaten column that now serves as
the gatepost of the deserted churchyard of Kirk Madrine ....
Long may it stand as the first authentic trace of Christian
civilization in these islands." — Dean Stanley's Lectures on the
History of the Church of Scotland, p. 85. Uncertainty still
attaches to the ecclesiastical character of the so-called " Church "
at the Roman town of Silchester. The Kirkmadrine stones
have, since Dean Stanley wrote, been placed under shelter from
the weather.
2 See Mr. R. St. John Tyrwhitt's article " Monogram" in Smith
and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. Mr. Tyr-
whitt notices that this -P is the only form of monogram found in
the Vatican and Sinaitic MSS. of the Bible.
MONUMENTAL SCULPTURES AT KIRKMADRINE. 15
totally different type from the familiar Celtic crosses
and Celtic inscriptions so numerous in Ireland and
the highlands of Scotland where Irish influence after
wards prevailed. Indeed, the sacred monogram is said
not to occur even once among the many hundred
early Christian monuments in which Ireland is so rich.1
On the monuments at Kirkmadrine in Wigtonshire,
to which I refer, the monogram is surrounded by a
circle, which, though it may have been merely decor
ative, more probably possessed a symbolical signifi
cance. The circle was taken in early Christian times
to suggest the idea of Eternity as being without
beginning and without end ; and in this connection it
is very interesting to observe that the Kirkmadrine
stones bear also the familiar symbols A and ft),
expressing, in a different way, a similar thought. A
monumental inscription at Milan, in which a circle
similarly surrounds the sacred monogram, expresses
in a Latin couplet the thought suggested by this
combination. I may sufficiently render the verses by
the two lines —
"Endless, beginningless, this mystic ring
Circles the names of the Most Highest King." 2
Such was the faith of the Christian Church in
Scotland as declared in its earliest Christian monu
ments : — Christ— Christ crucified — was the first and
1 Anderson's Scotland in Early Christian Times, second
series, p. 253.
2 Circulus hie summi comprendit nornina regis
Quern sine principio, et sine fine vides.
Cited by Anderson, ut supra.
l6 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
the last, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and /
the end.
But there is another fact borne testimony to by
these, the oldest Christian monuments of Scotland.
The inscription on one of them shows it to be a
monument marking the graves of two priests. " Here
lie," so runs the epigraph, " holy and eminent priests,
namely, Viventius and Mavorius."1
HICIACENT
SCIETPRAE
CIPVISACER
DOTESIDES[T]
VIVENTIVS
ETMAVORIVS
" Sacerdotes " is the term used, a word that came
early into use, and was sometimes employed with
reference to both of the highest orders of the ministry
— those of Bishops and Presbyters.2
These sculptured stones of Kirkmadrine carry us
back, without doubt, far beyond the days of St.
Columba and the Irish mission, up even to the days
of the Roman, or Romano-British, Church. Perhaps
we shall not be astray if we attribute these monuments
to the Church of St. Ninian, and to a date before the
1 The inscription is thus given in Stuart's Sculptured Stones of
Scotland.
2 It was found necessary, when it was sought to be precise, to
use, when referring to Presbyters, such forms as secundi sacerdotes,
or secundi ordinis sacerdotes (St. Leo), or minoris ordinis sacer-
dotes (St. Gregory the Great). Hence the pracipui sacerdotes of
the inscription may conceivably have been bishops. Summits
sacerdos, as is well known, was used in that sense. Id est is so
unusual in epigraphs of this kind that I am tempted to conjecture
that IDES is the whole or part of a proper name. See App. IV.
HICIACE/^
SGIETl?iAE
^,
l8 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
departure of the Roman legions from the island.
These stones, and another ancient cross at Whithorn,
possessing some of the same characteristic features,
belong to the region Christianized or presided over by
the first Bishop whose name has a place in the
authentic history of Scotland. They belong to the
region where St. Ninian, himself a child of the
Romano-British Church, laboured a century and a half
before Columba landed on lona.
Before dealing with the history of St. Ninian, it is
desirable to say something of the native population of
Scotland at the time of his missionary labours. It is
now very generally admitted that the whole native
population of the island was made up of various
nations or tribes, differing from one another, and it
might be differing very widely, in dialect, but all of
the one great Celtic stock. The subject of the origin,
the race, and the language of the Picts presented in
former days a wider battle-ground for the speculations
of antiquarians than it does at present. If it be true
that controversy upon the subject is not absolutely at
rest, it is certain that it would be no longer possible
to balance the names of eminent authorities against
one another on this side and on that, as was done upon
a memorable evening, vivid I am sure in the minds of
many of my readers, when the tempers of Sir Arthur
Wardour and worthy Mr. Jonathan Oldbuck were so
severely tried over the great Pictish question at the
dinner-table at Monkbarns.1 There is at the present
1 In The Antiquary of Sir Walter Scott.
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN PICTS. iy
day a substantial consensus among the most dis
tinguished specialists that the Picts were a Celtic
people, and the prevailing belief seems to be that the
heathen and barbarous Pictish tribes north of the wall
of Antonine were of essentially the same race as the
Britons, who, south of the wall, had received some
tincture of the civilization and of the new faith of
their Roman conquerors.1
The Picts, or tribes north of the Firths of Forth and
Clyde, were divided into two great clans or kingdoms,
distinguished as the Northern and Southern Picts, and
separated from one another by the great mountain
range that crosses Scotland from the south-west to the
north-east, and terminates in the Grampians. The
Northern Picts may be regarded as occupying the
country corresponding to the modern counties of
Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Inverness, Nairn, Elgin,
Banff, and Aberdeen ; while Kincardine, Forfar, Perth,
Fife, and the other counties north of the P'orth,
were in the possession of the Southern Picts. But
beside these two larger sections of the Picts, at the
time of St. Ninian there may have already existed a
smaller settlement of this people in the out-of-the-way
corner of Galloway, corresponding to the present
county of Wigton and part of Kirkcudbright. They
certainly occupied this region at a later date. If any
of the Scots from Ireland had at this early period
possessed themselves of any part of this country, their
occupancy was confined for the most part to the
1 It is more open to question whether the Picts belonged
to the Cymric or the Gaelic branch of the race.
20 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
islands and highlands of the western coast, where, at a
later time, we find them in large numbers.
This may not be an unsuitable place for stating the
fact, and emphasizing it, that the names Scots and
Scotia were in very early times used exclusively of the
Irish and of Ireland. Indeed, for six or seven
centuries after the time of Ninian, by the word Scots was
meant the Irish of Ireland, or the Irish settlers on the
west coast of what is now called Scotland. " It is
not safe," writes Dr. Hill Burton, "to count that the
word Scot must mean a native of present Scotland,
when the period dealt with is earlier than the middle
of the twelfth century."1 This fact, now universally
acknowledged, passed out of sight after the name Scotia
or Scotland had been transferred to the country that
is now so called ; and much confusion of thought was
thereby caused to several of the earlier historians of
Scotland, whose ignorance of this truth made their
interpretation of the early documents extremely per
plexing, and, indeed, involved them in many absurdi
ties. We shall have occasion later on to refer again to
the confusion thus caused.
It is strange that among the many lives of missionary
saints in Scotland we can obtain so very little informa
tion as to the character of the heathenism which
prevailed among the early inhabitants of the northern
parts of Britain. Caesar's account of the religion of
the inhabitants of Gaul and of Britain, so constantly
appealed to, seems to me to import into the beliefs of
1 Hill Burton's History of Scotland, vol. i., p. 207. For ample
proof, see Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. i,, pp. 137, 398.
MYTHOLOGICAL BEINGS. 21
the people a developed mythology which is not to be
gathered from subsequent documents. Skene (Celtic
Scotland, vol. ii., p. 109 jy.) investigates the question
with his usual carefulness, and he comes to the conclu
sion that the principal objects of popular belief were
"the personified powers of nature." "Mysterious
beings, who were supposed to dwell in the heavens or
the earth, the sea, the river, the mountain or the valley,
were to be dreaded and conciliated. These they
worshipped and invoked, as well as the natural objects
themselves in which they were supposed to dwell."
The Stdhe, which in later days degenerated into
" fairies," were, according to some of the ancient
writers, demons, sometimes appearing in the form of
men and offering to show " secrets and places of
happiness."
Recent travels in Africa present us with forms of
heathenism which seem to me to bear some con
siderable resemblance to the heathenism of Ireland and
northern Britain at the time of the conversion of the
people to Christianity. For example, in Uganda we
are told that the real objects of such worship as pre
vails are the lubari, demons, or spirits of thunder,
storm, rain, etc., and especially the great lubari of the
lake, the Nyanza. In Uganda, as in many other of
the surrounding districts, there does not appear to be
any idolatry proper. And among the Celtic people
of Britain and Ireland, though there are occasional
notices that show us that idols were not wholly un
known, they seem to play a comparatively unimportant
part in the religious life of the people. The Druids
22 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
again figure much more as diviners, sorcerers, or
medicine-men than as priests. They could do strange
things by spells and incantations. " They could
bring snow on the plain, . . . they could cover the
land with sudden darkness, . . . they could, with the
charm called the * Fluttering Wisp/ strike their un
happy victim with lunacy, and would even promise to
make the earth swallow him up."1 Savage and bloody
rites to propitiate the evil powers were not unknown.
The religion of our forefathers was indeed a religion of
darkness and fear.
I have not come across any certain notice of the
existence of idolatry (using the word in the sense of
the religious worship of images) among the heathen
of Scotland, but it would be rash to deny its exist
ence, as we can scarcely doubt that, beside other
glimpses, there is some foundation for the story, re
lated in the Tripartite Life, that St, Patrick saw " the
chief idol of Ireland, Cenn Cruaich, covered with
gold and silver, and twelve other idols about it,
covered with brass." *
And in the certainly genuine Confession of St. Patrick
we find him speak of the existence of idols (immunda
idohi) in Ireland. Nor do I feel entirely certain that
the rude naked female figure in wood, nearly five feet
in height, with eyes of quartz pebbles, discovered
( 1 88 1 ) in a peat-moss at Ballachulish, in Argyllshire,
1 Bishop Healy, Insula Sanctorum ft Doctorum, p. 4.
a See the discussion in Rhys' Lectures on the Origin and
Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom \Hibbsrt
Lectures, 1886), p. 200 sq.
LIFE OF NINIAN. 23
may not be really an idol deity of the early Celtic
inhabitants.1
We may now return to relate what is known of the
history of St. Ninian.
The earliest and most trustworthy authority for any
facts relating to the life of Ninian is Venerable Bede,2
whose incidental notice, though limited to a few lines,
will be reasonably reckoned far more valuable than
the more elaborate work of Ninian's professed bio
grapher, Aelred, a monk of Rievaulx, in Yorkshire,
writing some seven hundred years after the events he
professes to relate. Aelred, it is true, claims to have
made use of an earlier life of his hero ; but, though
this were so, the character of his narrative is such as
to make it impossible to accept much of it as his
torical. If Aelred is not primarily responsible for all
the absurdities it contains, the earlier biographer must
bear his share of the discredit that now attaches to
such a work. It was doubtless regarded as a precious
record in its day. We, of this age, would much
prefer even a very few commonplace particulars, such,
for instance, as would tell us something about the
books St. Ninian read or the journeys he made, or,
indeed, about the food he ate and the clothes he wore,
1 This figure is now placed in the National Museum of Anti
quities of Scotland, Edinburgh. (KL. 53, in the Catalogue.)
Sir Robert Christison discusses the nature of this figure in the
Proceedings of the Society of Scottish A ntiquaries (i 880-81), and
shows reasons for thinking that the image may rather be a
Scandinavian idol. The Norsemen were known in the neigh
bourhood of Ballachulish, and figures not unlike it, and believed
to be idols, have been found in Scandinavia.
- Eccl. Hist., lib. iii. 4.
24 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
to the most brilliant firework display of his miracles.
Ael red's Life of St. Ninian was a deliberately con
structed eloge, written at the desire of the ecclesiastics
of Candida Casa in honour of its founder. Now at
any period an eloge must be taken with caution ; but
an eloge written in a credulous age upon a saint who
died many centuries before, and whose fame it was of
much practical importance and pecuniary value to
maintain and extend, deserves a special scrutiny.
If Aelred did not invent, it is only too likely that
he accepted with open mouth and in perfect good
faith the stories told by the earlier writer. Some of
the legends related possess a certain poetic prettiness,
and some of them may be construed as having a
moral attached to them, and thus prove attractive to
people who are not over-scrupulous as to whether a
tale is true, provided it be what they call "edifying."
But for myself I shall confess at once that I am im
patient of the prodigious and fabulous, and demand
a large accumulation of evidence before I can give
it another designation, or feel myself spiritually
benefited by it.
The main facts of the life of St. Ninian, as they
have been derived from these two sources — Bede and
Aelred — and have been commonly accepted after
the sifting processes of modern historical criticism,
are the following. Ninian was a Briton, born, as is
conjectured, about the year 350. He belonged to a
district on the shores of the Solway ; whether on the
northern or southern side is uncertain. His father,
who appears to have been a man of rank and author-
NTNIAN'S EARLY TRAINING. 25
ity — perhaps a regulus or tribal chieftain — was a '
Christian ; and Ninian early received Christian bap- i
tism. He was from his youth a diligent student of
Holy Scriptures, and as he grew up he expressed the
strongest desire to visit Rome with a view to gaining
a fuller knowledge of Divine truth. We may remark
in passing that at that time, while the Empire was as
yet unbroken by the invasions of the barbarians, a
journey from the home of Ninian by the Sol way,
along the great military and postal roads, through
Britain and Gaul to Rome, could have been per
formed with perfect orderliness, ease, and safety. He
seems to have reached the capital during the epis
copate of Damasus, who held the see of Rome from
the year 366 to the year 384. We possess copious •
materials derived from the writings of his contem
porary, Jerome, and other sources that would enable
us to reconstruct for ourselves the surroundings,
ecclesiastical and secular, of the young Briton during
his stay in the great capital of the West. But con
fining ourselves to the outline of the facts of his
history, we learn from Bede that at Rome he was
regularly instructed in the faith and the mysteries of
religion. The wish felt by Ninian to receive his
training at Rome was as natural as would be the
desire of some intelligent and eager Kaffir youth from
our South African mission field, to gain the advan
tages of the theological training that might be had at
Oxford or Cambridge, or some other of the centres
of Anglican church-life at home. And we can also
readily credit the statements of his biographer that he
26' THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
spent in Rome many years, and was, in the end,
1 consecrated to the episcopal office by the Bishop of
Rome himself, and sent back to carry on the work of
missionary and pastor in his native land. On his
return journey through Gaul, it is related that he was
attracted by the fame of St. Martin of Tours — that
from him, or; leaving, he procured masons whom he
might take with him to build a church, after the
approved ecclesiastical style, in the district where he
was about to labour. On his return home he fixed
his place of abode, or, rather, his centre of missionary
work, at Leukophibia, a place at or near what is now
the little town and royal burgh of Whithorn in Wigton-
shire. Here he built his church of stone ; and in a
style to which the Britons were unaccustomed. This
building subsequently gave its name of Candida Casa,
or White House, to the bishopric.1
Where chronological guides are so very few, we
eagerly seize on the statement that while building this
church Ninian heard of the death of his friend
Martin, bishop of Tours, and that under his name he
dedicated the structure to the glory of God. The
death of the great bishop of Tours is now generally
assigned to the end of the year 397. 2 Beside labour
ing in the district of Galloway and, not improbably, in
1 Bede says nothing about procuring masons from St. Martin,
but only that the church was built of stone, in a manner unusual
with the Britons.
" Nov. nth. Well known in Scotland as the term-day
"Martinmas." As a help to memory, it may be recalled that
200 years later, in 597, another Roman missionary, Augustine
• of Canterbury, landed in the south of England.
NINIAN S MISSIONARY WORK. 27
the district that includes what is now Cumberland
and Westmoreland, Ninian carried on his missionary
work among the great body of the southern Picts
inhabiting the middle parts of Scotland south' of the
Grampians. His labours were attended with success ;
the heathen renounced their superstition, and ac
cepted the religion of Christ. It is further told us
that he ordained presbyters, consecrated bishops,
organized the Church, and divided the country into
ecclesiastical districts.1 There is, to my mind, no
thing in itself improbable in this statement of Aelred's.
Ninian's training was in Roman ways of thought, and
the ecclesiastical organization of settled churches, like
those of Italy, with which he was familiar, may well
have suggested the attempt to effect something similar
at home. And that the diocesan system, if estab
lished, did not long maintain itself if it were, instead
of being gradually extended as success might warrant,
given rather a nominal than a real existence, is no
more than might be expected, when we consider the
wild turbulence of the age and people, and the too
speedy relapsing into heathenism of their main body.
While Ninian was absent from Britain, the with
drawal of the Roman troops by the usurper Maximus
left the country exposed to one of the most formid
able of the incursions of the Picts, who were now
joined by the Scots from Ireland. It was not till the
year after Ninian's return that the northern wall was
1 Vita Niniani, cap. vi. Whether the word parochia is here
used in the sense of bishopric, or in its more modern sense, is
uncertain.
28 THE CELTIC CHURCH TN SCOTLAND.
recovered, and a legion sent to Britain to protect it.
It would need a greater knowledge of the circum
stances than we possess to enable us to feel entirely
confident that Ninian's difficulties were enhanced by
this state of things when he entered on his missionary
labours among the Picts. But one can hardly imagine
that the Picts would not, more especially at that
moment, have looked with keen suspicion on one
who was so thoroughly associated with the religion of
the hostile power of Rome.
In the central and south-western parts of what
is modern Scotland, and in the west of northern
England, Ninian laboured for many years. He died
and was buried at Whithorn ; but the exact date
(i6th Sept., 432) commonly assigned for his death
has no certain basis of authority.
It is in a very high degree probable that the mon
astic system was introduced into northern Britain by
St. Ninian, and that to him the great monastery
which afterwards flourished at Whithorn owed its
foundation. To this monastery, till destroyed by
Saxon invaders, both Welsh and Irish students
resorted in great numbers.
There has been among some historians in this
country a foolish exhibition of rooted prejudice in
the dislike shown by them to acknowledge the in
debtedness of the British Church to Rome. A wider
knowledge of ecclesiastical history and ecclesiastical
literature would have shown that there was perhaps
no Church in Christendom more free from doctrinal
corruptions than the Church of Rome at the period of
BRITAIN AND THE CHURCH OF ROME. 29
which we are speaking. As a friend of mine has
sometimes put it, paradoxically, to audiences who
were not likely to misunderstand him, the Pope was
then a Protestant ; or, to express oneself with more
accuracy, though more diffusely, the Bishops of
Rome had not then put forward the monstrous pre
tensions to universal jurisdiction that appear in later
days, nor had the doctrines which they inculcated yet
taken the unscriptural and uncatholic shapes that
some of them assumed in mediaeval times. There
is certainly everything to be grateful for, and nothing
to resent, in the interest shown by the Bishop of
Rome in the Church of the Roman settlements in
Britain, and in missionary effort among the heathen
on the borders of what were, or had recently been,
Roman possessions.
The varying fortunes of Ninian's foundation may
here be briefly sketched. After the death of the
founder (though of the Monastery we get occasional
glimpses), the history of the See is enveloped in mist
and darkness for the long space of three hundred
years. On the conquest of the British kingdom of
Strathclyde by the Angles, Candida Casa again
emerges into light ; and what is apparently an entirely
new succession of bishops takes its origin in A.D. 731.
But after some seven or eight occupants of the
bishopric, whose names have come down to us, we
again lose hold of the record amid the violence and
bloodshed of that turbulent and unhappy period. At
the instance of King David I., aided by the Lord
of Galloway, the bishopric was (1126) once more
30 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
erected, and with the king's sanction made one of
the suffragan sees of York. The ecclesiastical dis
tribution of the country, though, for the sake of
convenience, tending to follow the lines of change in
civil government, in this as in other instances afforded
by Scottish history, exhibited an adhesion to ancient
boundaries that only slowly gave way.1 When St.
Andrews was erected (1472) into a metropolitical see
by Pope Sixtus IV., the bishopric of Candida Casa
was, in spite of the protests of the Archbishop of York,
finally removed from English authority, and remained
a suffragan see of St. Andrews until it was, in 1491,
subjected to the see of Glasgow, on the latter being
raised to the archiepiscopal dignity.
We know, on the authority of Bede, that the body
of St. Ninian was interred in his own church at
Candida Casa. The possession of such venerable
and highly-valued relics in the course of years
brought crowds of pilgrims, of different countries, and
of all ranks, to the remote corner where was situated
the shrine of the saint. Even in days of war, the
English or Irish pilgrim was sometimes officially
secured protection during a visit prompted by so
excellent a motive as devotion to St. Ninian. If
Whithorn were not earlier visited by royal personages
(as the Scottish historian, Boece, would have us
believe), certainly the good Queen Margaret, wife of
1 "In 1214 the Bishop of Candida Casa received pay from
the cmtoiles of the see of York for taking charge of the spiritu
alities during the vacancy of the see. " — Bp. Forbes, Historians
of Scotland, vol. v., p. xlix.
NINIAN'S POWER IN SCOTLAND. 31
James III., made a solemn pilgrimage to the place in
1473 ; while the gallant James IV., who fell at Flodden,
moved perhaps by a just remorse for the deeds of
earlier years, made repeated journeys to the holy shrine.
The memory of Ninian was a power in Scotland ;
and dedications under his name of churches and
altarages were common ; nor were they confined to
the principal scenes of his labours, but were to be
found in every quarter of the kingdom. Holy wells
bearing his name probably mark the Christianity of a
date l earlier than the dedications.
The name " Ninian," undergoing in the language of
the people a phonetic change, sometimes appears as
"Ringan." Thus in the poem of Sir David Lindsay
(? 1490 — ? 1567) entitled " Ane dialog betwixt Experi
ence and ane Courtier," we find among " the imageis
usit amang Christian men " —
" Sanct Roche, weill seisit, men may see,
Ane byill new broken on his thye,
Sanct Eloye he doth staitly stand
Ane new horse-shoe intyll his hand,
Sanct Ringan of a rottin stoke,
Sanct Duthow 2 boird out of ane bloke. "'^
While an ancient bell of the early Celtic type, made
of iron coated witli bronze, known as "Clog-Rinny,"
1 See Bishop Forbes, Historians of Scotland, vol. v., pp. xiii —
xvii. In the present century many churches have been dedicated
under the name of St. Ninian, among which we may particu
larize the cathedral at Perth, built after a fine design of Mr
Butterfield.
- /. e. Duthac of Tain in Ross-shire.
;J See Bishop Forbes' Introduction to the Historians of Scot
land, vol. v., p. xxvi.
32 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
or Ringan's Bell, has come down to us, and may
now be seen in the National Museum of Antiquities in
Edinburgh (see p. 309). I fancy it may be through
an adhesion of the final "t" of "Saint" or "Sanct"
to the first letter of " Ringan," that we approach the
form " St. Trinian " in the old English ballad of Flod-
den Field. Similarly I conjecture that by a reverse
process St. Thenew became St. Enoch (see p. 54).
It has already been stated that there is no reason
to doubt that Ninian founded a monastery at Can
dida Casa. This monastery afterwards attained much
distinction as a school "of learning. And it has of
late been accepted by careful inquirers that this
monastery, easily reached from the north of Ireland
and frequented by Irish students, was one of the
channels through which the monastic system reached
the sister island.1
1 Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., pp. 46-9. This view is also
accepted by Bishop Healy (Insula Sanctorum et Doctontin, p.
166). These writers identify the "House of Martin" and the
monastery of " Rosnat " (which word has been conjecturally
interpreted as the " Promontory of Learning ") occurring in Irish
records with the monastery of Whithorn. If it is true that St.
Finnian of Moville had been a student at Candida Casa, it is
interesting to trace through him the influence of the school of
St. Ninian upon his more famous pupil, St. Columba.
33
CHAPTER II.
ST. PATRICK, A CHILD OF THE BRITISH CHURCH IN
SCOTLAND.
THE next historic name of note that meets us as we
trace the story of the Christian Church in Scotland is
that of Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland.
The narrative of St. Patrick's missionary labours
belongs properly to the ecclesiastical history of the
sister island, and I do not purpose to relate it here.
But as St. Patrick may be claimed, and claimed with
good reason, as a native of North Britain, and a
spiritual child of the British Church in this part of the
country, it will not be unsuitable to say a few words
with reference to his early history; and this we are
the more encouraged to do because there are two or
three particulars connected with his life that happily
throw some few rays of light into the mist of obscurity
that envelops the condition of the Christian Church
in Scotland at that remote period.
It is not now doubted by the best critical authori
ties that we have in our possession at least two
genuine writings of St. Patrick. One of these is what
is known as his Confession, written towards the close
of his life, and giving some account of its chief
c
34 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
incidents. The other is an epistle commonly known
as the Epistle to Coroticus^ whom some would identify
with the Welsh prince Caredig ; while others — more
recent scholars, among whom are Mr. Skene and Mr.
VVhitley Stokes — contend that this Coroticus was a
prince of Strathclyde, Ceretic by name, who had his
capital at Alclwyd (/. e. Dumbarton), from the neigh
bourhood of which St. Patrick had been carried cap
tive. The epistle to the subjects of Coroticus (who
ever he was) was suggested by the cruelties perpetrated
by that chieftain in his ravaging the Irish coast, and
carrying captive great numbers of St. Patrick's Chris
tian converts. Both these writings seem to me to
possess very many of the characteristic marks of
genuineness, and, as I have just said, they have been
accepted by those who are best versed in the science
of historical criticism. Both these writings contain
notices (though of the briefest kind) of Patrick's early
life.
It has been generally believed that the birthplace
of St. Patrick was at, or close by, Dumbarton on the
Clyde; and though claims to this distinction have
been made on behalf of other places,1 no sufficient
reason has as yet been shown for departing from the
commonly received account. He tells us himself
that he was of gentle blood (ingenuus secundum car-
nem\ that his paternal grandfather had been a priest,
and that his father was a deacon in the Church. His
father possessed a little country house attached to a
1 E. g. Glastonbury, Bristol, Carlisle, Boulogne, Tours, Car-
leon, and Ireland itself.
ST. PATRICK'S PARENTAGE. 35
farm, close by the town of Bannavem of Tabernia.
The identification of this name has given rise to
animated dispute, but I have followed the general
belief in supposing the place to be what is now called
Dumbarton. In this town the father of Patrick, as well
as being a deacon of the Church, held the responsible
post of a " decurion," an office which originated in
the municipal system of the Roman Empire, and to
which the office of town-councillor, or bailie, in our
modern Scottish municipalities bears some considerable
resemblance.1
You will note then, in the first place, that the
celibacy of the clergy was not at this time insisted
on in the Church in Northern Britain. In some later
ages it would have been considered a disgrace to be
the child of an ecclesiastic, but I think we can detect
that, as St. Patrick states the fact, he puts it forward
rather as a mark of his respectability. " I had," he
writes in the opening of the account of his life, "for
my father, Calpornius, a Deacon, who had been son of
Potitus, a Presbyter." And if, as has been suggested
by Roman Catholic controversialists, in both cases the
children may have been bom before the assumption
of holy orders by the fathers, St. Patrick certainly
1 Decurions " werejfound all over the Roman Empire to its
extremest bounds by the end of the fourth century. Some dis
coveries in Spain about ten years ago (i.e. about 1877) showed
that Decurions were established by the Romans in every little
mining village, and were charged with the care of the games, the
water-supply, sanitary arrangements, education, and the local
fortifications." — Professor George T. Stokes, in Smith and Wace's
Dictionary of Christian Biography.
36 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
never thought it necessary for the credit of his father
and grandfather to mention the fact. The truth is
that at this period both the practice and sentiment of
the Church varied in different places. A belief in the
superior sanctity of celibacy had manifested itself long
before the time of St. Patrick in many parts of Chris
tendom. The monastic system was an outcome of it;
but the attempt, when made, to compel the clergy
ministering to the general body of the faithful to live
unmarried was as yet but very partially successful in
the West ; while in the East, where the monastic
system originated and flourished in full vigour, the
celibacy of the secular clergy has never even to
this day been enforced, and is, as a matter of fact,
1 quite the exception.
From St. Patrick's mention of his father as a deacon,
who was also a decurion, and possibly engaged in
farming operations, it may be plausibly inferred that
there may have been in that age in North Britain
something like what is found in the Greek Church,
and what some of our bishops are disposed now to
revive among ourselves, a permanent diaconate — not
so rigorously debarred from secular employments as
were the higher grades of the clergy. If this were
so, it must be acknowledged to be an exception to
the general spirit of ecclesiastical legislation elsewhere,
which tended wholly in the direction of severing
those in holy orders from worldly business.
While Patrick was not yet sixteen, a body of
marauding freebooters from Ireland, sailing, as we
may suppose, up the Firth of Clyde, seized upon him
ST. PATRICK IN SLAVERY. 37
at his father's farm, and he was swept with a crowd of
other captives — "many thousands" in number, he
says himself (though this may be an unintentional
exaggeration) — into the ships of the Irish barbarians,
and carried across the sea to serve in slavery. In
Antrim he was occupied for six years as a herd,
and it was during this unhappy period of his life that
he gained that knowledge of the Irish tongue which
he afterwards used so effectively as a missionary,
preacher, and bishop. But better than gaining a
knowledge of Irish was his gaining during those
tedious years a knowledge of himself, and of the in
finite love of his Heavenly Father. The lessons of his
childhood, which, if we may believe his own depre
ciatory remarks upon his history, had not secured in
his boyhood submission to the law of God, nor, as
he says in his own words, " obedience to our priests
who used to warn us to the end that we might be
saved " — these lessons now came back to his memory,
and the truth was made known to his heart. He tells
us how the fear and love of God increased within
him, and how earnestly and constantly he devoted
himself to prayer. There is a genuine touch of the
age in which he lived when he recounts that often in
a single day he would say a hundred prayers,1 and in
the night-time almost as many, and that he often rose
before daybreak and offered his prayers in the woods
or upon the mountain side, and this — in snow, or
frost, or rain. And not only did he pray, he also
fasted, anc? he declares of himself there was " no
1 Or short devotions after the manner of collects (omtiones].
38 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
laziness " in him, because, as he came afterwards to
see, " the spirit burned within him."
After six years' captivity Patrick made his escape,
and after some years, during which his history is
obscure, we find him in Britain with his parents. But
in his dreams he is moved to return to the land of his
captivity. A messenger appears to bring him a letter
from Ireland, entreating his return. He hears a cry
— " the voice of the Irish " — asking him to come back
and stay with them, and he cannot but respond to
• the call. Here his connection with Scotland ceases,
and his after-career as a missionary and bishop, full
of interest as it is, falls outside our province.
A few words, however, may be said on the personal
character of St. Patrick. The acknowledged writings
of the saint supply materials out of which a picture
may be constructed, which, though slight, is no
mere fancy sketch, but possesses qualities of a true
moral portraiture. He is seen in these writings as a
man of great determination and force of character, of
earnest devotion, of deep humility. He is sensitive
to the accusations of conscience; sins of his youth
come back with sorrow to his memory. He is sensi
tive, too, like many good men, to charges made
against him by others, though he knows those charges
to be ill-founded. His warmth of sympathy and
affection for the Irish, among whom he had served
as a slave, is portrayed by some very natural touches
in the Confession. His well-known hymn in the Irish
tongue has been often translated into English, and for
its glow of imagination and fervour of devotion to
CHRONOLOGY OF ST. PATRICK. 39
God it will always challenge a high place in the
history of Christian hymnology.
The chronology of the life of St. Patrick is involved
in much obscurity. His capture as a youth by the
Irish must be placed towards the close of the fourth
or the beginning of the fifth century. It seems
impossible to be more precise with any reasonable
confidence. The year 432 is the date commonly
accepted for St. Patrick's landing as a missionary in
Ireland ; but even this important and well-marked
event has been placed somewhat later by some able
scholars. On the other hand, one of the most dis
tinguished of the Celtic scholars of our time, Mr.
Whitley Stokes, places this event as early as 397. 2
His death at the age of 120 (A.D. 493) is still more
questionable, more especially when we find the fond
ness of the ancient hagiologists for assigning extra
ordinary longevity to their heroes. Instances of this
will be noticed later on.3
1 I have accepted the prevailing opinion as to this hymn,
known as the " Lorica," or '•" Breastplate." Tradition is strongly
in favour of its being the work of St. Patrick ; and its contents
are not only consistent with, but confirmatory of this belief.
'2 The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, vol. ii. p. 273.
'•' See p. 69.
4o
CHAPTER III.
ST. PALLADIUS, AND HIS DISCIPLES, ST. TERNAN AND
ST. SERF — THE ORIGIN OF THE MYTH OF A NON-
EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN ANCIENT SCOTLAND.
THE name of a contemporary of St. Patrick, of
whom we know something from a distinctly authentic
source, has been long associated by tradition, and in
the writings of the mediaeval historians, with Christian
missionary effort in the north-eastern part of Scotland.
At Fordun, in Kincardineshire, a church was dedicated
to St. Palladius, and was believed to contain his
relics. The place was visited by pilgrims ; a well
situated there is known as " Paldy's Well " ; and in
recent times, if it be not still continued, a fair held
on the festival of the saint (July 6) was known as
"Paldy" or "Pady's fair."1 John of Fordun, a
" chaplain," as it would seem, or chantry-priest " of
the church of Aberdeen," and the earliest systematic
historian of Scotland, writing in the latter half of the
fourteenth century (circ. 1385), would have us believe
that St. Palladius was sent to Scotland by Pope
" Paldy" is locally pronounced " Pauldy " or " Paudy."
ST. PALLADIUS. 4!
Celestinus in 429 or 430, and with him he associates
as disciples and fellow-labourers St. Ternan and St.
Serf (Servanus), who were ordained bishops by him.
The same story is repeated by subsequent historians
with more or less of modification. Nor should we
have reason to question it, but for the fact that we
now know the exact source of Fordun's information
so far as the mission from Celestine is concerned,
and we know too that he has certainly misinterpreted
the authority on which he founds. The value of
Fordun's authority for the labours of Palladius in
Scotland, and for his converting Ternan and Serf, we
are less able to estimate ; and the latest critical in
vestigator of the question, Dr. W. F. Skene, has with
much learning and ingenuity maintained that Palla- '
dius was martyred in Ireland, and never laboured in
the north of Scotland — attributing the Scottish tra
dition and the Scottish cultus of St. Palladius to
Ternan having brought the relics of Palladius from
Ireland and deposited them at some place in the
north-east of Scotland.1 A thorough investigation of
the evidence would occupy more space than can be
afforded to it in these pages ; but I may venture to
say that, after weighing what has been said on both
sides, I am disposed to think that we are not entitled '
to reject with entire confidence the hitherto prevailing /
belief that a missionary named Palladius laboured '
for the spread of Christianity in Scotland. But, as I '
have said, that Fordun misinterpreted his authority
for the statement that Pope Celestine sent Palladius
1 Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., pp. 26 — 31.
42 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
to Scotland in A.D. 429 or 430, there can be no doubt
whatever. His words are substantially a quotation
from the Chronica of Prosper of Aquitaine (a con
temporary of Palladius), who has, under the year 431,
« the words, "Palladius is ordained by Pope Celestine,
» and sent as first bishop to the Scots believing in
Christ." It is now, I suppose, universally admitted
that at the date of Prospers writing, and indeed for
several centuries after, the word Scotia meant " Ire
land," and Scott " Irishmen." But by the time of
Fordun the words had changed their meaning, and
hence his error, which has since been again and again
repeated.1
The question as to the labours of Palladius in the
country we know as Scotland is for us of really but
little importance, for even in the fullest accounts he
is little more than a name.2
If the Palladius of Scottish story is to be identified
1 In another work of Prosper, entitled Contra Collaton'in, a
controversial ti'eatise against John Cassian, who had written a
work entitled Conferences (Collationes) of the Fathers dwelling
in the Sdthic Desert, we find a passage referring to Palladius —
"Whilst the Pope laboured to keep the Roman island Catholic,
he made the barbarous island Christian by ordaining a bishop
for the Scots" (cap. xxi.).
2 To Roman Catholics in Scotland the subject is of more
interest. The Roman Catholic historian, Dr. Bellesheim (His
tory of the Catholic Church of Scotland, in Hunter Blair's edition,
vol. i. , pp. 18 — 24), is evidently inclined to accept Dr. Skene's
solution, but thinks it dutiful to say, "It is not in fact possible
to arrive at the truth of the matter with perfect certainty; and since
an ancient and venerable tradition points to St. Palladius as an
Apostle ot Scotland, Leo XIII. was fully justified, in his Bull
restoring the Scottish hierarchy in 1878, in accepting the tradition
in question." This is an instructive passage.
PRESBYTERIAN MYTH. 43
with the Palladius sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine,
we know that it was through his instrumentality that
St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, was commissioned
by Celestine to proceed to Britain to combat Pelagi-
anism, which had spread widely in that country. This
happened in 429, two years before the mission of
Palladius to Ireland. Palladius was a " deacon of
the Roman Church " — that is, as I take it, he occu
pied a place of prominence and dignity as one of the
seven deacons of the city of Rome. It has been
conjectured that he was a Gaul by birth, as the
Palladian family occupied an important place in that
country.
The chapter of Fordun's Chronicle in which he gives
us his account of Palladius, came curiously enough to
play a very important part in the creation of the
myth — which was so long generally accepted in Scot
land, and is perhaps not yet quite defunct — that there
existed in Scotland in early times a church constructed,
as regards ecclesiastical government, on the Presby
terian model. It is only fair to Presbyterian writers of
former days to acknowledge that it was most natural
for them to seize and make much of a testimony
coming from a source so little likely to be prejudiced
in favour of their views as an ecclesiastic of the
Roman obedience in mediaeval times. Now that we
know that Fordun's error originated in a misunder
standing of the word " Scots," as used by Prosper, it
is worth our while to quote the passage of Fordun,
and observe the growth of the myth. After first
recounting how Pope Celestine had introduced into
44 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
the celebration of the Mass the Psalm, " Judge me, O
Lord," before the Introit, and enjoined that the introit,
gradalia, and allelulia should be taken from the
Psalms, and that the offertoria and collects during the
Communion should be sung with musical inflexions
(modulation*) — the importance of noting these ritual
ordinances will be seen by and by — he goes on to
say that in the year 429 or 430 St. Palladius was
ordained by the same pope and " sent as first bishop
to the Scots believing in Christ." A few lines lower
down, after repeating that Pope Celestine sent Palla-
dius as first bishop in Scotia, it is added, " Whence it
is fitting for the Scots diligently to celebrate the feasts
and ecclesiastical commemorations (festa simul et
memorias ecclesiastical], since he carefully and thoroughly
instructed their nation, namely the Scots, both by
word and example in the orthodox faith, before whose
coming the Scots used to have as teachers of the
faith and ministers of the sacraments only Presbyters
or monks, following the rite of the early Church."
Dr. Skene's comment on this passage is so admirably
lucid and cogent, that I cannot do better than give it
in his own words. " There were, of course, no Scots
in Scotland at that time. But, by thus appropriating
Palladius, Fordun brought himself into a dilemma.
According to his fictitious and artificial scheme of the
early history of his country, the Scots had colonized
Scotland several centuries before Christ, and had been
converted to Christianity by Pope Victor I. in the
year 203. But if Palladius was their first bishop in
430, what sort of Church had they between these
EARLY SCOTTISH CHURCH. 45
dates ? He is therefore driven to the conclusion that
it must have been a Church governed by presbyters
or monks only. Hector Boece 1 gave the name of
Culdees to the clergy of this supposed early Church ;
and thus arose the belief that there had been an early
Church of Presbyterian Culdees." 2
In connection with this passage of Fordun, I can
not but think that it has been too hastily assumed
that Fordun regarded the want of bishops as charac
teristic of the "primitive Church." There seems to
me good reason for believing that the phrase, " follow
ing the rite of the primitive Church," has reference,
not to the absence of bishops, but to the simplicity of
ceremonial and ecclesiastical observance, which was
supposed, with good reason, to mark the earlier Scot
tish Church. This view of Fordun's meaning is
supported by the Lessons for the Feast of St. Pal-
ladius in the Aberdeen Breviary. There we read
that Palladius appointed "festivals and their solemn
observance," and the becoming mode of celebrat
ing and receiving the Sacraments. He consecrates
churches ; he gives ordinances with respect to ecclesi
astical vestments; he orders the "canonical hours"
to be said after the Roman manner.3 We saw that
Fordun thought it worth while recording that Celes-
1 In Latinized form, Boethius : born at Dundee about 1465 ;
Professor of Philosophy in Paris, 1497 ; published his Scotorum
Histories (folio, Paris), 1526 ; died, 1536.
- Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., p. 30. See also Historians of Scot
land, vol. iv. , p. 395. Some account of the Culdees will be
found in chapter xii. of this book.
3 Brev. Aberdon. Julii V.
46 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
tine, who sent Palladius " as first bishop to the Scots
believing in Christ," had made several ritual and
liturgical changes in the celebration of the Mass.
With this in his mind he thinks of the probable want
of elaboration in the liturgical ordinances of the
earlier Scottish Church ; and the emphasis he places,
in connection with Palladius, on the duty of the Scots
observing "ecclesiastical festivals and commemora
tions," confirms the view I have here suggested as the
true interpretation of the words "following the rite of
the primitive Church." If the view I have put for
ward is correct, we find Fordun making two quite
distinct statements about the Christian Scots before
the coming of Palladius. He states, what he believed
to be a fact, that they were without bishops, and he
adds that their " rite " — /. e. their liturgical observances
— were different from those introduced by Palladius.
The whole context must be studied that we may
obtain the true sense of the passage.
The names of St. Ternan and St. Serf are con
stantly associated in legendary history with that of
St. Palladius. Ternan is said to have been instructed
and baptized by Palladius, and consecrated a bishop
among the Picts. In the mediaeval times, Ternan
occupied, beyond question, a place of considerable
importance in the local religious conceptions of the
north-east of Scotland. A bell—" the Ronecht "—said
to have been given to him by the Pope (who, through
a formidable anachronism of some 200 years, is made
Gregory the Great), and to have followed him miracu
lously all the way to Scotland, was preserved till the
RELICS OF ST. TERNAN. 47
Reformation at Banchory-Ternan, and was dignified
by being placed in the custody of an hereditary
keeper, as was not uncommon in the case of other
sacred relics (see p. 310). At Banchory, too, were
preserved his head and the St. Matthew volume of
his four Books of the Gospels, which were enclosed
in metal cases adorned with gold and silver. In
the treasury of the Church of Aberdeen was a mon
strance containing his relics. The Aberdeen Breviary
honours him with six lections, chiefly devoted to his
miracles. Three or four churches bore his name in
their dedications.1 In default of any secure footing
for reasonable conjecture as to his labours, we must
content ourselves with these indications that he had,
in the region where he laboured, made a deep
impression upon the popular mind.
St. Serf presents a yet more embarrassing problem
to the critical inquirer. Chronological statements in
the various legends are so diverse, that some will
have it that there were two saints bearing this name —
one in the fifth and the other in the seventh century.
For our purpose it must suffice to say that, while the
name of Ternan is chiefly associated with the north
east of Scotland, that of Serf or, in the popular
language, Sair, is connected with Fife and the valley
of the Forth. His body was believed to be deposited
at Culross,2 a village on the northern shore of the
Firth of Forth, some eight or ten miles higher up
than Queensferry, where the stupendous railway-
1 See Bishop Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, p. 450.
'* The name is commonly pronounced Coo-ross.
48 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
bridge now spans the channel. At Culross, the
Festival of the Saint was kept yearly on the ist July,
" when the inhabitants marched in procession, carry
ing green boughs " ; and, at least as late as 1839,
the custom had not altogether disappeared, though
by common consent the ceremonial was transferred,
we are told, by a strange transmutation of sentiment,
to the 4th of June, in honour of the birthday of King
George III.1 The fame of the saint certainly ex
tended to Aberdeenshire, for a yearly fair, called " St.
Sair's Fair," was formerly held at Monkege (Keith-
hall), and more lately at Culsamond. He was patron-
saint of Creich and Dysart in Fife, at which latter
place there is a cave, to which he is said to have
occasionally retired.2
1 Neiv Statistical Account, Perth, p. 600. For a Papal
parallel, see p. 291.
2 Kahndars of Scottish Saints, p. 447. See also below, p.
303. Skene (Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., p. 32) refuses to acknow
ledge any claim of St. Serf's belonging to the period of St.
Palladius.
49
CHAPTER IV.
ST. MUNGO (OR KENTIGERN).
IN the early legendary records, three great figures
stand out from the crowd of lesser men, all engaged
in the great work of Christianizing Scotland — St.
Ninian, St. Mungo, and St. Columba. Of the second
of these we now come to speak. Roughly calculated,
something like a century — a century enveloped for
us in darkness — intervenes between the labours of
Palladius and the labours of Mungo.
There is sufficient evidence to show that the
Southern Picts, who had been converted to the Chris
tian faith by Ninian about the beginning of the fifth
century, relapsed in large numbers into heathenism
between the date of the death of their great teacher,
and the middle of the sixth century. There is also
reason to believe that the Britons of the Roman
province of Valentia — that is, of the country between
the two great military walls — had fallen into de
generate ways and into grave errors in faith, if they
did not, as a body, actually apostatize from the
religion of Christ. The withdrawal of the Romans
from Britain was the withdrawal of an influence that
D
50 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
was protective of the faith. We may be helped to
realize the danger to which the British Church was
then exposed if we will try to conceive how it would
fare at the present time with the native churches in
Kaffraria, or Zululand, had the English to retire from
South Africa.
It was the work of St. Mungo to restore the lapsed
and to strengthen the weak in regions that included
the field of St. Ninian's labours. The scene of the
chief labours of St. Mungo was the British kingdom
of Strathclyde, or Cumbria, which reached from a
little to the north of its capital and seat of govern
ment, Dumbarton (then known as Alclwyd), down to
the river Derwent in Cumberland, and extended
across the island till it was met by the boundary,
shifting and ill-defined, of Bernicia, the kingdom of
the Angles. Of the origin of this kingdom of Cum
bria we really know nothing for certain. When
thrown wholly on their own resources by the entire
withdrawal of the Romans, the Britons of the west
learned a lesson from their eastern brethren, who
found, too late, that the help afforded by their Saxon
allies was a highly doubtful gain. I may mention
that it has been supposed that the name of the islands
of Cumbrae, in the Clyde, is the linguistic relic of the
name of the ancient kingdom. The island of Bute
was in the hands of the Scots from Ireland. The
two islands I have named were in the hands of the
Britons of Cumbria. A few miles of sea divided
them. But Mungo is represented as also labouring,
for at least a short time, among the Southern Picts,
BIOGRAPHY OF ST. MUNGO. 51
who inhabited the region between the Forth and the
Grampians, as well as in the district of Galloway, the
special scenes of the services of St. Ninian on behalf
of Christ.
When we attempt to gain a knowledge of the true
history of St. Mungo, we are met by many difficulties.
If we are unfortunate in Ninian's biographer, Aelred
of Rievaulx, we are, it must be acknowledged, even
yet more unfortunate in the romancer who has given
us the principal life of St. Kentigern.1 Here, again,
in the Life by Jocelyn, we have a life written " to
order " many hundred years after the death of its
subject. The facts are, that Jocelyn, who was Bishop
of Glasgow between the years 1174 and 1199, com
missioned a monk of the great Cistercian Abbey of
Furness, in Lancashire, who was also Jocelyn by
name, to write a life of the famous Scottish saint.
Bishop Jocelyn commenced the building of the noble
cathedral of Glasgow, and it was natural that he
should desire to possess a history of his famous pre
decessor, whose relics were to form the chief glory
and treasure of the splendid structure he designed to
raise, and under whose name it was to be dedicated.
1 There is a fragment of a somewhat earlier Life in the
British Museum. But it, like that of Jocelyn, belongs to the
twelfth century. It professes to be the work of an ecclesiastic,
who styles himself "a clerk of St. Kentigern, "and was written on
the suggestion of Bishop Herbert of Glasgow, who died in 1164.
It contains only what Bishop Forbes styles "the weird legend"
(though I would prefer to speak of it as the gross story grossly
told) of the saint's parentage and birth. It is printed in the
Historians of Scotland, vol. v., p. 243, and in the Registrnm
Episcopatus Glasguensis, vol. i., Ixxviii, sy.
52 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Some materials, it is true, existed for this biography,
but they were scanty ; and if deficiencies had to be
supplied, the monk of Furness, as the issue proved,
possessed an imaginative inventiveness that was lux
uriant in its fertility and quite adapted to the
ecclesiastical taste of the day. From the tissue of
monstrous absurdities, some of them being, we may
say with scarcely a doubt, deliberate falsifications with
an interested purpose, whether invented by Jocelyn
or by an earlier writer, it is very far from easy to
disentangle the threads of truth.
There has been too ready a disposition on the part
of even sober investigators to follow the very easy
course of merely rejecting the miraculous and accept
ing the residuum as truth. But a narrative is not
necessarily true because it is not palpably absurd.
There is needed by the critical historian in such
cases an extensive general knowledge of the con
ditions of society at the period with which he is
concerned. It is also highly important that he
should possess a familiarity with other examples of
a like kind of literature; for there is a remarkable
proneness towards the recurrence of legendary types.
A story that has proved entertaining about one saint
is pretty sure to be engrafted upon the life of some
other. In this way only can the inquirer secure in
any degree a discriminating tact for separating, with
some measure of confidence, the true from the ficti
tious, and gain a due perception of that which is so
often, in these narrations, written between the lines.
I do not myself pretend to the possession of this
BIRTH OF ST. MUNGO. 53
subtle sensibility and painfully acquired skill ; but I
will relate in outline what the most competent his
torians of our day are disposed, perhaps with too
much readiness, to accept as the true account of St.
Mungo.
The mother of the saint is represented as the
daughter of a king in a Pictish district of the
Lothians, for the Picts, after the withdrawal of the
Romans, had settled themselves in several parts of
southern Scotland. This king is represented as a
Pagan, or, as the earlier fragmentary life has it, a
" semi-Pagan." When the time drew near for the
birth of the child, the princess, Thenew, or Thenog,
by name, and a Christian by profession, on account
of charges made, rightly or wrongly, against her
chastity, was, after previous dangers and sufferings,
put alone into a frail coracle on the shore at Aber-
lady,1 and pushed out to sea, that thus she might
perish. The winds and tides bore her boat first
outside the Isle of May, and then up the Firth of
Forth, past Inchkeith and the island which has
since come to be known as Inchcolm, through the
narrowing channel of what was afterwards called
Queensferry, where now the vast structure of the
Forth Bridge spans the estuary, until it was finally
stranded on the shore of Culross. Here, on landing,
she gave birth to a son ; and, according to the •
legend (which would seem to be here guilty of an
anachronism), St. Serf, whose residence and monastic
school were situated at this place, came to the help
1 On the coast of Haddingtonshire.
54 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
of both mother and child.1 By Serf the child was
given at his baptism the name " Kentigern " (which
has been interpreted as " Chief Lord "), and after
wards the pet-name of " Munghu," or " Mungo,"
which is variously explained as " Dearest Friend," or
" Dear and lovable." 2 By Serf the boy is brought up
and educated. When he reaches man's estate, he
leaves his master, and, after some wildly fabulous
adventures, he reaches Cathures, now called Glasgow,
where in a former age St. Ninian had, according to
the story, consecrated a burial-ground. Here he
took up his abode. The fame of his piety and
virtues spreads, and at the early age of twenty-five
years he is chosen as bishop by the Prince of
Strathclyde, with his clergy and people. For his
consecration, it was found easiest to bring a bishop
from Ireland, and by a single bishop he was ad
vanced to the episcopate. Consecration by a single
bishop is said to have been at this time the custom
of the Britons and Irish. In passing, I may say that
consecration by a single bishop, though irregular, has
not been accounted by the Church as invalid ; and
examples of such exceptional acts are to be found
1 A church in Glasgow was dedicated to the mother of
Mungo. It is not difficult to perceive how "Saint Thenog "
became as pronounced, "Saint Henog " or "Saint Enoch,"
and the name is still perpetuated amid the bustle and busy life
of the nineteenth century in " St. Enoch's Railway Station,"
and "St. Enoch's Hotel."
- Skene (Celtic Scotland., vol. ii., p. 183) says, "Cyndeyrn
and Munghu are pure Welsh — Cyndeyrn from Cyit, chief ;
feynt, lord. Mwyngu, from Mwy-n, amiable ; «/, dear,"
CHURCHES DEDICATED TO ST. MUNGO. 55
elsewhere. A further consideration of this question
will be found at a subsequent page.1
We may notice that the name " Mungo," suggested
by affection, holds its ground through Scotland at this
day in preference to the more dignified " Kentigern."
If the tourist in Glasgow in search of the noble
cathedral were to ask in the streets to be directed to
" St. Kentigern's Cathedral," the chances are twenty to
one he would get no satisfactory reply, but " Where is
St. Mungo's ? " would be at once understood. Indeed,
it is worthy of observation that not a single church in
Scotland is dedicated to the saint under the name of
Kentigern, while we have St. Mungo's parish in
Dumfries, St. Mungo's Chapel in Perthshire, and
churches of St. Mungo at Polwarth, Penicuik, Lanark,
and other places.
At Glasgow Mungo established a monastery, and
there he continued to reside until he somehow in
curred the animosity of a new king of Strathclyde,
Morken by name, by whom he was driven from his
home. He resolved to seek refuge among the
Christian Britons of Wales ; and, on his journey
southwards, he is represented as preaching in the
district around Carlisle, where it is interesting to find
at this day no less than nine churches dedicated under
his name. Among them is one often visited by the
tourist to the English Lakes, the Church of Cross-
thwaite2 at Keswick.
1 See p. 89.
2 Where the fine recumbent monumental effigy of the poet
Soxithey is to be seen.
56 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Having passed into Wales, Mungo resided for a
time at Menevia, as the guest of the Bishop David
(Dewi), afterwards known as the patron-saint of Wales,
and founder of the see that bears his name. Leaving
St. David, he founded a monastery at Llanelwy, in
Wales, on the banks of another Clyde. This monastery
became rapidly the resort of great numbers of men of
all classes, rich and poor, high and low, educated and
ignorant.
Another change in the "occupancy of the throne
of Strathclyde brought Mungo back to Scotland.
Roderick (Rydderch), surnamed " the Bountiful," suc
ceeded Morken. The new king had been baptized
and instructed in Ireland, and his sympathies were
thoroughly with the Church. He sent a message to
Mungo requesting his return, and the saint set forth
for the north with many of the brethren from the
convent at Llanelwy.1 Before leaving Llanelwy
Mungo placed in charge his friend and disciple,
Asaph, whose name has been given to the place, and
to the bishopric of St. Asaph.
Mungo was met on his journey north at Hoddam,
in Dumfriesshire, by Roderick, amid a scene of wonder
ful rejoicing, and at Hoddam he remained for some
years before finally settling in his former residence at
Glasgow. If one can give credence to the speech
which Jocelyn puts into the mouth of St. Mungo on
the occasion of his meeting King Roderick, it would
1 The return of Mungo is placed by Skene in pr near the
year 573.
VISIT OF ST. COLUMBA. 57
seem that the mythology of the neighbouring Angles
was beginning to mingle with the native superstitions
of the Britons of these parts, and thus contributed
to further impede the labours of the Christian ministry.
Without accepting literally Jocelyn's account of
Roderick's voluntary subjection of himself and his
authority to the Church (which seems to bear the
colour of twelfth century controversies), we can well
believe that Mungo's influence with the king might be
practically boundless.
After Mungo's return to Glasgow, and in the far
advanced years of his life, must be placed his famous
meeting with Columba.
The fame of the missionary labours of each of these
good men must have been well known to the other ;
and nothing could be more natural than the desire of
Columba to visit the bishop, and see, face to face, so
eminent and successful a servant of his Lord. Columba
is represented as" approaching Glasgow with a great
company of monks in three ordered bands. He sends
to inform Mungo of his coming. The bishop, also
accompanied by a crowd of ecclesiastics and others
similarly disposed in three bands, comes out to meet
him. They draw near, both parties chanting aloud
as they come psalms and spiritual songs. When
they meet on the bank of the Molindinar burn, the two
servants of the Lord embrace and kiss one another.
The bishop receives his visitors with hospitality, and
when they are about to depart, Mungo and Columba
exchange staves in token of their mutual love in Christ.
58 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
It was commonly believed in after time (and there is
no reason to question the fact) that the staff given by
Columba to the bishop found its way to the Church of
St. Wilfrid (now the Cathedral) at Ripon, where it
was an object of veneration down to the time of the
Reformation.
59
CHAPTER V.
THE HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE DOCUMENTARY
AUTHORITIES FOR THE LIVES OF ST. NINIAN AND
ST. MUNGO.
THE histories of St. Ninian and St. Mungo, as they
are commonly accepted by our modern historians,
have now been related. But I have already hinted
that perhaps more has been told than is really
warranted by historical evidence. I am dissatisfied
with that method of dealing with the old lives of the
saints, which consists of little more than omitting the
miraculous element of the stories. And of this dis
satisfaction I am more particularly sensible when the
stories, as in the case of Aelred's Life of St. Ninian and
Jocelyn's Life of St. Kentigern^ come to us in their
present form from writers who lived many hundred years
after the events recorded, and who were plainly little dis
posed to, and little qualified for, a critical investigation
of the material upon which they worked. Indeed, I
must confess J;hat I am not at all satisfied that a good
part of the stories told were not deliberate inventions
of these two writers.
Some forty or fifty years_ago it was the prevailing
60 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
vogue with religious writers of a certain school to ex
press, and, I doubt not, to cultivate a deeply reverential
feeling for everything mediaeval. These writers seem
to me to have foolishly shrunk from a free and rational
criticism of anything that bore the stamp of what was
euphemistically called " the ages of faith." The late
Mr. J. H. (since Cardinal) Newman's writings on
" ecclesiastical miracles " exercised an influence upon
many who did not follow the author in his change of
creed ; and, in my opinion, that influence was dis
tinctly injurious to the scientific treatment of the early
religious history of Britain. It may indeed be admitted
that it is not a sufficient reason to refuse credence to
an alleged miracle only because it seems to us trivial,
grotesque, or disproportionate to the occasion. But,
lacking positive testimony of real and substantial
weight on their behalf, I do not think it is any indica
tion of an irreverent spirit to smile at what is ludicrous
in these stories, and to be sceptical of what is, at least
prima facie, absurd.
It is well, perhaps, that at this point we should make
acquaintance with some specimens of the histories from
which we have derived the particulars that have been
recorded. And it is right to add that the prodigious
is not a mere occasional and passing feature, but gives
a general colour to the whole.
And first, to consider Aelred's Life of St. Ninian.
The three opening chapters are little more than an
enlargement of the passage from Bede which is cited
by cur author in his preface, and which, though con
sisting of only a few lines, may be regarded as of more
MISSION TO SOUTHERN PICTS. 6 1
value than all the subsequent marvels.1 It is intro
duced after a mention of Colurnba's mission to the
Northern Picts, and as cited by Aelred, runs as
follows : " The Southern Picts who dwell among the
same mountains had long before abandoned the error
of idolatry, and received the true faith on the preaching
of the word to them by Bishop Nynia, a most reverend
and most holy man, a Briton by race, who at Rome
had been regularly instructed in the faith and mysteries
of the truth ; the seat of whose episcopate, dedicated
under the name of St. Martin, Bishop, and a famous
church (where he rests in the body with many saints),
the nation of the Angles at the present time possesseth.
This place is commonly called Candida Casa, because
there he built a church of stone in a manner unusual
among the Britons (insolito Bretonibus more}" In
Chapter IV. we read how King Tuduvallus was cured
of an intolerable disease in the head and of blindness
by the touch of the saint and the sign of the cross.
The next chapter relates how a priest, falsely accused
of unchastity, was triumphantly vindicated in church
before a great gathering of clergy and people by an
infant of one day old. The new-born babe, when
adjured by the saint, stretched forth his hand, and
pointing to his real father, exclaimed in a manly voice
(i'ox virilis\ " That is my father ; your priest, O bishop,
is innocent, and there is naught between him and
me but participation in that human nature which is
common to us both." I think there is something
more portentous in the acquaintance of the infant with
1 The passage occurs in the Ecclesiastical History (lib. iii. c. 4).
62 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
the metaphysics involved in the conception of our
common human nature than in the "manly voice,"
which has suggested to the sceptical a suspicion of
saintly ventriloquism. This is a story, we may observe
in passing, which is told, with modifications, of various
saints in different countries. A study of comparative
Christian mythology shows us that it was a favourite.
Chapter VI. is an amplification of the fact that Ninian
laboured among the Southern Picts as missionary and
bishop. In Chapter VII. we are told how leeks, which
the gardener had just planted, were found full-grown
and in seed when the saint required them for the re
fectory table. It is added, "the guests looked at one
another"; and well they might. In Chapter VIII.
it is related how the saint would protect his cattle by
drawing a circle round them on the ground with his
staff, how robbers dared to penetrate inside the
enclosure thus formed, how one of them was gored to
death by the saint's bull, and afterwards raised to
life, admonished, and forgiven. Meanwhile, the other
thieves do not seem to have been able to escape out
side the magic circle. Chapter IX. tells a story that
has obtained currency, I fancy, because of its pictur-
esqueness, and what is supposed to be its " edifying "
character ; how the saint, saying his Psalter in the
open air, was surrounded by an invisible canopy im
penetrable by the rain which fell around, save once,
apparently, when a wandering and idle thought for one
moment crossed his mind, whereupon the shower wet
both him and his book, and recalled him to his duty.
But in Chapter X. we have, as our author says, " miracle
ST. NINIAN'S MIRACULOUS POWERS. 63
added to miracle." A youth belonging to the saint's
school, desiring to escape a punishment about to be
inflicted on him, ran away, carrying off St. Ninian's '
staff. In his terror he incautiously put out to sea in
a wicker-framed coracle, over which the hide had not
been drawn. After a little the water came pouring
in, and with pale countenance he beheld the waves
ready to avenge the injury done to his master. When
at length coming to himself, and believing that St.
Ninian " was present in his staff," he besought him by
his most holy merits that aid might come to him from
God. He then stuck the staff into one of the holes,
and this took place that posterity might understand
what St. Ninian could do even on the sea. " On the
touch of the staff the element trembled, and did not
presume to enter further through the open holes." To
be brief, the youth landed safely and planted the staff
on the shore, where the dry wood took root and bore
branches and leaves ; and at the root of the tree a
most limpid fountain springing up, sent forth a crystal
stream delightful to the eye, sweet to the taste, etc.
Chapter XI. consists in an eulogy on the saint, and
relates his burial in a stone coffin near the altar ; while
Chapter XII. concludes the book with relation of
certain miracles wrought by his relics.
After the perusal of this record of marvels, those
who have acquired experience in such studies will, I
believe, not hesitate to declare that these are for the
most part not the mere outcome of the misunder
standings of a credulous age, but in great part, at all
events, the deliberate concoctions of a dull romancer.
64 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Of course we are well aware that even our most trusted
sources of information on the history of the Church
at certain periods contain narratives of supernatural
occurrences that are scarcely likely to commend them
selves as strictly representing actual facts, when
weighed by the modern historian, who comes un
trammelled to the investigation. But from among the
general body of ecclesiastical documents of the middle
ages, an acquired tact will enable us to make a dis
tinction between miracles and miracles, and to dis
criminate, often with a high measure of probability,
between, on the one hand, the narration of the careful
writer who recorded what, on some fair show of
evidence, he rightly or wrongly believed to be true,
and, on the other, the wild romancing of a professional
miracle-monger. In the former class we are very
frequently rewarded by a sense of contact, at many
points, with reality ; in the latter, we find abounding
the unmistakable flavour of the unscrupulous story
teller. We are in a different world when we pass from
Bede's narratives of the supernatural to the succes
sion of astounding prodigies related by Jocelyn of
Furness.1
It would be wearisome were I to deal with the Life
of St. Kentigern chapter by chapter. One's appetite
for the marvellous is quickly satiated. And while an
occasional prodigy may enliven a story, my experience
is that reading a rapid succession of them is as dull
1 Problems of a special kind are presented by Adamnan's Life
of St. Columba, and they will be considered separately when the
history of the Irish mission is dealt with.
STORIES OF ST. MUNGO. 65
work as the systematic perusal of a jest-book. Never
theless, I would fain convey some taste of the flavour
of Jocelyn's confections. Well, then, when Kentigern
as a boy was under the instruction of St. Serf at
Culross, some of his youthful school-fellows in their
rough play pulled the head off a pet redbreast of the
master, and then sought to lay the blame on Kenti
gern ; but he placed the bird's head upon its body,
and signed it with the sign of the cross, when away it
flew. On another occasion, while still under the
tuition of St. Serf, it was Kentigern's duty to light the
lamps of the church, but no fire could be found.
Whereupon Kentigern took a bough of a growing
hazel-tree, and when he had signed it and blessed it
in the name of the Trinity, fire fell from heaven and
kindled the bough, which, like Moses' bush, burned
but was not consumed. The bird and the tree that
figure heraldically in the arms of the city of Glasgow
were suggested by these legends; while the salmon
with the ring in its mouth that is represented on the
dexter side of the shield is supposed to be a memorial
of a less edifying story of Jocelyn's, in which we are
told how a certain queen, Languoreth by name, who
had been an unfaithful wife, is able, through the miracu
lous aid afforded by the saint, to pose successfully
before her husband as a slandered and innocent
woman. But I do not know that any of the stories
takes my fancy more than that of the saint's ram,
which ran faster after its head was cut off than it did
before it was slaughtered ; while the head, turned into
stone, remains at Glasgow " even unto this day," writes
66 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Jocelyn, " as a proof of the miracle, and, though silent,
declares the merit of St. Kentigern." l The titles of
chapters were doubtless intended not only to sum
marize the contents, but also to whet the curiosity of
the reader. Some of these are as follows : " How
Saint Kentigern placed in the plough under one yoke
a stag and a wolf, and how, sowing sand, he reaped
wheat "; 2 " Concerning a cook raised from the dead
by the prayers of St. Kentigern " ; " How a jester,
despising the gifts of the king, demanded a dish of
fresh mulberries after Christmas, and how, through St.
Kentigern, he received them " ; " Concerning two
vessels full of milk sent by St. Kentigern to a certain
craftsman, and how the milk was spilled into the river
and became cheese " ; " How the Lord protected the
saint's garments from being wet by the smallest drop
of rain, snow, or hail." All these, and many more, are
entertaining stories, if one does not indulge in too
many of them at a time; and, to do him justice,
Jocelyn does his best to draw a moral from each.
From a biography such as Jocelyn's it is a task of
the greatest difficulty, if indeed it be not an absolute
impossibility, to extract historical material as to which
we can feel complete confidence. We may be able to
1 The story of the ring and the salmon may be briefly told.
The king finds on the finger of one of his knights, who was asleep,
a ring given by the king to his queen ; he throws it into the
Clyde, and then asks the queen to show him the ring ; the queen,
in her distress, asks the aid of the saint, at whose command a
salmon is caught in the river, and the ring is found in the body
of the fish and given to the queen.
2 The same marvel is told of St. Ternan in the Aberdeen
Breviary, pars hyem., fol. Iv.
GREAT AGE OF ST. MUNGO. 67
say of one incident perhaps, " This may well have
been ; it falls in with what we learn elsewhere " ; or
of another, " It possesses more of local colour than we
can readily attribute to an inventor"; but beyond
this we feel that our footsteps are on very uncertain
ground.
Jocelyn tells us that Kentigern, ft matured in merit,"
died at the age of 185. After what we have seen of
the character of Jocelyn's romancing, is it really
worth while to adduce in relation to this statement
(as is done by the acute and learned Dr. A. P. Forbes,
late Bishop of Brechin) examples of great longevity,
such as that of the famous Countess of Desmond,
" Old Parr," and some instances referred to by the
physiologist Haller, all of which come to us on
evidence that at least deserves consideration ? It
seems to me a remarkable example of how the judg
ment of an able, learned, and cultivated man may be
warped by a "tendency," in this instance (as I take
it), a misplaced reverence for what is certainly ancient
and had a show of piety. "Temperance," writes
Bishop Forbes, " sweet temper, and faith tend to length
of days ; " and, as Bishop Forbes is plainly not indis
posed to believe many of the alleged miracles, he
might well have added that in the moist climate of
the west of Scotland, and before another Scotchman
had invented the " mackintosh," it must have been of
immense hygienic value never to have worn wet
clothes. For here Jocelyn is very express : " All bear
witness who knew the man, as well as those that con
versed with him, that never in his life were his clothes
68 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
wetted with the drops of pouring rain, snow, or hail,
dropping upon the earth. For many a time placed in
the open air while the inclemency of the weather
increased, while the pouring rain flowed along like a
sewer, and the spirit of the storm raged around him,
he stood immovable, or went where he wished, and
always continued untouched and uninjured by a drop
of any kind." l In the region of ecclesiastical no less
than of civil history, our first thoughts should ever be
not of what is " edifying " or what is " pious," but of
what is true. To the kind of criticism indicated above,
there can be no question of the superiority of the
critical spirit shown by the Bollandists, who in many
instances apply what I shall venture to call the " canon
of common-sense " as trenchantly as the most scep
tical of modern inquirers. Again, in our own day,
an Irish scholar of distinction,2 who certainly cannot
be justly accused of a tendency to unreasonable in
credulity, does not scruple to test some of the
legendary histories of Irish saints (though perhaps
with some inconsistency of application) by ordinary
common-sense considerations applicable to the events
of every-day life. Thus the St. Ninian of Scotland
1 Bishop Forbes, in the end of his discussion (Historians of
Scotland, vol. vi., p. 369), asserts that " the difficulty in the case of
St. Kentigern arises from chronological considerations," and cites
an admirable passage from Mr. Skene, who shows that "if you
deduct the 100 (i. e. from 185), you will bring out a chronology
very consistent with other events." Exactly so ; if you deduct
100, which would bring the age of St. Kentigern to the not very
unusual 85 years.
>J Dr. John Healy (Roman Catholic), Coadjutor Bishop of
Clonfert."
EXTRAORDINARY LONGEVITY. 69
appears in Ireland (with the common honorific prefix
mo l) as St. Mo-nenn. In former times there was a
disposition to identify St. Moinenn of Clonfert with
St. Ninian or Mo-nenn of Candida Casa, but the
critic to whom I refer declares such an identification
to be "manifestly out of the question," as it would
have made St. Ninian of Candida Casa " at least 200
years of age." 2 The disposition to dignify the Celtic
saints with extraordinary longevity is common among
the Irish hagiographers. Thus St. Ultan of Ard-
braccan dies, according to the Marty rology of Donegal,
at the age of 189. The authors of the lives of St. Ciaran,
St. Declan, and St. Ailbe give to these saints lives
extending from 200 to 300 and even 400 years ; while,
according to a writer who scorns round numbers and will
be accurately precise, St. Ibar died at the age of 353.^
We have already hinted that for dealing with the
legendary lives of the saints a valuable qualification
would be extensive reading in hagiological literature
generally. If the student confines himself to only
one or two documents, he will, I think, spend more
time and take more trouble in sifting some marvellous
tale, and labouring to find what he might imagine to
be the nucleus of truth contained in it, than he will
feel himself justified in doing if he finds the same
startling and effective story appearing again and again
1 Mo="my," a term of endearment.
" lusnla Sanctorum ct Doctoriiin ; or, If eland's Ancient
Schools and Scholars, by the Most Reverend John Healy, D.D.,
etc., p. 223.
3 See Bishop Ilealy's Insula Sanctonun, etc., pp. 136-7.
70 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
in various lives with or without modification. Indeed,
quite independently of any search for biographical
facts, the examination of such materials for a com
parative Christian mythology as are supplied, for
instance, in the long row of great folios that make
the Ada Sanctorum of the Bollandists, would form a
study entirely worthy of the scientific inquirer. The
task would doubtless necessitate the expenditure of
much time and trouble ; and probably we shall have
to wait till some patient German of large erudition
and indomitable perseverance undertakes it. I may
illustrate what I am thinking of by one or two ex
amples. We have seen already how St. Kentigern,
while still a youth, is greatly embarrassed for the want
of ^fire, which had been extinguished throughout the
monastery of St. Serf; he takes a branch of a green
hazel-tree, breathes upon it. signs with the sign of the
cross in the Name of the Trinity, and it immediately
bursts into flame. Now this same Jocelyn, who so
well hit off the prevailing taste, was requested by the
Irish Archbishop of Armagh and the Bishop of Down
to write a life of St. Patrick, and here we find St.
Patrick, while still a child, miraculously making a
good fire, not this time with green hazel branches,
but with a lapful of icicles, which, similarly, he
breathes upon and signs with the cross. Again, St.
Mungo has the dead body of Fergus, "a man of God,"
placed in a wain drawn by "two untamed bulls,"
which move to the appointed burying-place. This
miracle, we are told,1 was repeated in the cases of
1 Historians of Scotland, vol. v., Notes, p. 329.
EARLY LEGENDS. 7 I
several other saints, who are named as St. Fursey,
St. Florentinus, St. Tressanus, St. Joava, St. Fachult,
and St. Patrick. In the case of St. Gall, the story is
varied; unbridled horses take the place of oxen or
bulls.1 We have noticed in the Life of St. Ninian
how the saint cleared a priest of false accusation by
the voice of a new-born child. St. Aldhelm, the
Saxon scholar of the seventh century, in a similar
manner, when at Rome, extracts a declaration from a
child nine days old which cleared the credit of Pope
Sergius I. St. Brigid of Kildare, by a like adjura
tion, proves the innocence of a bishop; and this story
appears in one of the Lessons on the festival of that
saint in the Aberdeen Breviary? A similar story is
told in the mediaeval Lectionary of the Church of
England of St. Britius, whose name still appears in
the calendar of our Prayer-Book at November 13,^
with the slight variation that the saint himself is the
accused and the child is a month old. Nor does even
this instance exhaust all the parallels.
One other illustration may be offered of this
tendency to the recurrence of certain striking stories.
There may be differences of opinion as to the date
when St. Baldred flourished, but we need have no doubt
that a hermit of that name took up his abode upon
the Bass-rock, which forms so remarkable an object at
1 I have not gone to the trouble of discovering who is meant
by St. Joava, but I am sure the story is as true of him or her as
it is of the others better known.
2 Pars hyem., fol. xlvi.
a See Sarum Breviary (edit. Procter and Wordsworth), Fascic.
iii., col. 1033.
72 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.,
the mouth of the estuary of the Forth, and that he
laboured in good works among the people of the
neighbouring parts of Lothian. He taught the faith,
we are told, in three churches of that region — Ald-
hame, Tynynghame, and Preston. On the death of
the saint there was an eager contention which of
these churches should have the honour of possessing
his body. Prayer was made that a sign from heaven
might be given to settle the question in debate ; and,
lo, on the morrow, three bodies were found exactly
alike, each laid out "with the same exequial pomp,"
and each congregation carried off one, which was
ever after held in the greatest reverence.1 Bishop
Forbes has pointed out a parallel to the triplication
of the saint's body in the case of the great Welsh
saint, St. Teilo ; while two bodies are produced in a
legend of St. Patrick and in a legend of St. Monnena.-
Valueless, or worse than valueless, as these stones
may appear to us, it is the part of the historian to
remember that in former times such narratives entered
largely into the religious beliefs and largely affected
the religious sentiments of both clergy and people.
None of them were too absurd to be read in the
appointed Lessons of the Church,-'5 and they possessed
all the qualifications for impressing and holding the
imagination of a credulous and ignorant people.
It is worthy of mention that as late as the sixteenth
1 See Forbes' Kalcndars of Scottish Saints, p. 274.
" Smith and Wace, Diet, of C/ir. Biog., s.v. Baldred.
3 The story of the multiplication of St. Baldred's body will be
found in the Aberdeen Breviary •, pars hyein., fol. Ixiii., sq.
ALLEGED MIRACLES. 73
century the story of the triplication of St. Baldred's
body appears in one of the philosophic writings of an
eminent Scottish theologian, John Major, or Mair,
who, after studying at Cambridge, became famous at
Paris as a lecturer on Theology at the Sorbonne.1 In
his commentary upon the Fourth Book of the Sen
tences of Peter Lombard, a recognized text-book of
the theological schools, Major, when treating of the
Holy Eucharist, argues from the story of the body of
St. Baldred that it is possible with God "that the
same body can be placed drciimscript'we in different
places at the same time."2
Once more ; in examining the ancient documents
which are concerned with the lives of the saints, the
critic is bound to take into consideration moral
improbabilities, and what I may call miracles in t/ie
moral and spiritual world, as well as miracles in the
physical world. The cases where real discrimination
and the exercise of sound judgment are needed (and
such are very numerous) are, of course, very different
from cases involving palpable absurdities like the
following, which I adduce as affording illustrations,
1 In 1518 Major was induced to leave Paris for Glasgow,
where he was made Principal Regent of the College, and con
tinued to reside for five years. John Knox, the leader of the
Scottish Reformation, was matriculated at Glasgow while Major
was in office ; and Dr. ^Eneas J. G. Mackay — in his scholarly
life of Major, prefixed to the translation of Major's Historia
Majoris Britannia, printed by the Scottish History Society
(1892) — conjectures that the fame of Major may have been the
cause of Knox going to Glasgow rather than to St. Andrews.
- See A History of Greater Britain (1892), p. 87, note.
74 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
on a magnified scale, that will carry conviction even
to the least suspicious of those addicted to hagiological
literature. In a manuscript Life of St. Serf, preserved
in Archbishop Marsh's library in Dublin, which
has been printed in the Appendix to Dr. Skene's
Chronicles of the Picts and Scots (pp. 412 — 423),
we read how St. Serf was first Patriarch of Jerusalem
for seven years, then Pope of Rome for seven years,
and finally settled himself at the village of Culross on
the northern shore of the Forth. Now, even if the
records of the episcopal succession at Jerusalem and
at Rome were more patent than they are of this
startling allegation, it will be admitted that, to say the
least, this is a highly improbable story. For myself,
I could quite as easily credit that St. Serf, as we read
in the same narrative, was miraculously born to his
parents, Obeth, King of Canaan, and his wife Alpia,
daughter of the King of Arabia, that on his way
from Canaan to Jerusalem he crossed the Red Sea,
like Moses, on dry ground, and that an angel cut for
him a staff of the wood of the tree from which the
Cross of Christ had been made. Again, when St.
Serf, having surrendered the throne of St. Peter at
Rome, despite the expostulations of the whole people,
had advanced to the coast of France, he crossed the
sea to England on dry ground, with 7,000,000 com
panions of his pilgrimage.1 This large number of
1 After reading this narrative, it will not surprise the reader to
learn that St. Adrian, who is also of royal descent, should come
from Hungary to labour among the Picts, accompanied by 6606
companions, who were all martyred by the Danes. (Aberdeen
Bnviary, pars hyem., fol. Ixii. )
LEGENDS OF ST. SERF. 75
fellow-travellers is doubtless a little surprising ; but we
cannot assert that it involves a suspension of the
physical laws of nature.1 Is it, however, more prob
able than their mode of crossing the channel ? We
certainly cannot wonder that when St. Serf met St.
Edheunanus at the island of Inchkeith, after they had
spent a great part of the night in secret converse, he
should put to his friend the awkward question, " How
am I to dispose of my family and companions?"
After these things the reader becomes impatient of
the subsequent stories of his healing the blind, raising
the dead, and other such commonplaces. A brief
stimulant to our jaded sense of wonder is supplied by
the narrative of how the saint cured a man afflicted
with an insatiable appetite by thrusting his thumb
into the patient's mouth, and so expelling a devil by
whom he had been possessed ; of how a pig which
a poor man had killed for the saint's supper was
found next morning safe and sound ; and lastly, of
how a sheep-stealer, who was declaring his innocence
by oath on the saint's wonder-working staff, was
painfully convicted by the animal bleating inside the
culprit. -
1 The text of the MS., as printed in the CJironicks of the
Ficts and Scots, reads cum septan inilibus m ilium. Skene
(Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., p. 256) seems to take in ilium as an error
for Jiiilitum, and to understand the word as meaning monks.
But the story is too absurd to be improved by the conjectures of
the textual critic. The word wiles, it may be added, needs some
such addition as Dei or Christi to signify' a monk.
2 Archbishop Usher was acquainted with this Life of St. Ser-
vamis, and describes it as " packed with the most stupid lies " —
a verdict that will probably be assented to by all (Brit. Eccl.
76 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
The extravagances and absurdities of many of
the lives of the saints of the ancient Scottish, Irish,
and British Churches were distinctly recognized in
the seventeenth century by one who may justly be
reckoned as in the very first rank of authorities on
hagiological literature, the learned Jesuit, John Bol-
landus (1596 — 1665), who initiated the vast design
that has resulted in the long series of the Acta Sanc
torum, volume after volume of which has been
appearing, at varying intervals, from 1643 up to our
own day. The attitude of the Church of which he
was a member towards the miraculous scarcely per
mitted him that freedom of critical investigation
which is open to others ; and he himself was cer
tainly by no means over-sceptical. But he was plainly
somewhat staggered by the records of our national
hagiology. He in a marked way particularizes in
this connection the lives of the saints of Ireland,
Scotland, and of the ancient British Church, rightly
including among the latter the saints of Gallic Brit
tany. In other words, the narratives of Celtic origin,
in his opinion, have a portentous wildness of state
ment which is characteristic. It is as much as could
Antic]., p. 353, edit. 1687). Yet these stories of the recreated
pig and the bleating mutton formed part of the faith of the
people of Scotland. They both are read in the Lessons for St.
Serfs day in the Aberdeen Breviary. The Rev. T. Olden has
been so good as to point out to me a similar story in Jocelyn's
Life of St. Patrick. St. Patrick's he-goat, employed by the saint
in carrying water, was stolen, killed, and eaten. The suspected
thief declared his innocence on oath ; but "a vile-sounding bleat
ing" in the stomach of the culprit revealed the truth. {Vita S.
Pat., cap. xv.)
HIGHLY-COLOURED DESCRIPTIONS.. 77
be expected of him when he declares them to be
"almost incredible." l And I am afraid it is only too
true that the Celtic saints occupy this position of
unenviable pre-eminence ; though I am bound to say
the hermit saints of Egypt come in a good second.
Some may, I fear, think that I have been unsym
pathetic in my treatment of the lives of the saints of
the Celtic period. But dealing, as- I was, with the
trustworthiness of the documents, I do not know that
I could have adopted any other line. I am quite
willing to admit that, in many cases, the writers
themselves believed the marvels that they reported.
Allowance must, in all cases, be made for tempera
ments characteristic of race. An excitable, senti
mental, and highly-emotional people will be judged
by a different standard from that applicable to those
of a cold-blooded and phlegmatic disposition. Rude
and uncultivated minds cannot be expected to pos
sess the natural critical acumen which we find among
peoples who have been subjected for generations to
a strict mental discipline. Even at this day, how
difficult it is for us to discover the real truth from the
highly-coloured descriptions of contemporary events
in Ireland.
Nor should we omit to notice, as contributing
something to the influences affecting the work cf the
old Celtic writers, the wild and sometimes awe-
inspiring aspects of Nature in the midst of which
they dwelt. Life upon desolate moorlands, or amid
1 General Preface to \heActaSattftorum, Jan. Tom. i., p. 34.
78 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
mountains often shrouded in mysterious gloom, or by
the wild shores of the Atlantic, may well have fos
tered a natural tendency to strange fancies and
superstitious fears. Even now Ireland and the Scot
tish Highlands can breed portents and prodigies
which cannot breathe the air of regions occupied by
people of Saxon descent. Those who have read the
recently-published Journal of Sir Walter Scott may
remember how, in 1827, Sir Walter was informed by
Clanronald of a carefully-organized attempt made,
apparently shortly before, to catch a water-cow^ which
inhabited a small lake near the house of the chieftain.
And the excellent editor of the Journal, Mr. David
Douglas, adds the illustrative note that yet more
recently the proprietor of Loch-na-Beiste, " moved by
the entreaties of the people and on the positive
testimony of two elders of the Free Church that the
creature was hiding in his loch, attempted its
destruction by pumping and running off the water ;
this plan having failed, owing to the smallness of the
pumps (though it was persevered in for two years),
he next tried poisoning the water by emptying into
the loch a quantity of quicklime." But the water-
cow does not seem to have suffered materially, as it
was seen in the neighbourhood as late as 1884.
" This transaction," adds Mr. Douglas, " formed an
element in a case before the Crofters' Commission at
Aultbea, in May 1888." Surely, if we will not be very
hard upon the grave and reverend " Free Church
elders " towards the close of the nineteenth century,
we must make allowance for the witness-bearing of
TASTE FOR THE MARVELLOUS. 79
the members of another Scottish Church a thousand
years earlier.
It seems to me certain that " the law of demand
and supply " prevails in regard to " miracles " as well
as to other commodities. Where the ordinary
interests of life are numerous and varied, there is
little taste for the marvellous. Where, on the con
trary, men's thoughts have small scope beyond the
events of a somewhat monotonous existence, a ghost,
a prodigy, or a miracle is eagerly accepted. It serves
to stir the dull blood, and becomes a valued possession.
Now, when men crave a stimulant of this kind, a
supply is sure to be forthcoming among an imaginative
people. The long evenings of winter spent by house
holds gathered in the firelight supplied the fitting
environment for the development of the myth.
Exaggeration and embellishment were absolutely
certain ; and will any one, knowing what human
nature is, doubt that there was a good deal of
deliberate invention ? But when a striking story that
reflected honour on some local or national saint once
got currency, it would have been felt by most as
nothing short of irreverence or profanity to question
its truth. And so, by and by, the silliest legends
found their way, not only into the popular lives of the
saints, but into the Service-books of the Church.
So
CHAPTER VI.
ST. COLUMBA.
IN treating of the career of the third great figure
that is presented to us in the history of the evangeliza
tion of Scotland, we are fortunate in possessing records
of a very different kind from those with which we had
to deal in the cases of St. Ninian and St. Kentigern.
One of the most precious relics in the early records of
any people is the Life of St. Coluniba, by the Abbat
Adamnan. No wide interval of time intervened in
this case between the writer and the subject of the
biography. In his early years, Adamnan must have
had " frequent opportunities of conversing with those
who had seen St. Columba." All materials, written
or oral, which lona could supply were at his
disposal. He wrote his account in the island home
of the saint, and "surrounded by objects, every one
of which was fresh with the impress of some interest
ing association." Though Adamnan was the ninth
abbat of the monastery of lona, the succession of its
chief officers had been rapid ; and it was only one
hundred years after the death of the saint that he
8i
drew up his inestimable memoir. He had before him
at least two written documents dealing with his
subject, and of these he makes use.1 Whatever may
be thought of his narratives of miraculous occurrences,
there is no reason to suppose that he was not an
honest relater of what he heard from others or found
recorded in writing. And the innumerable notices of
the ordinary incidents in the story of the founder of
his house bear the unquestionable stamp of truthful
ness. The whole work abounds in material by the
help of which it is not difficult to reconstruct with
much reasonable confidence the constitution of the
brotherhood and to picture to ourselves the daily life
of its members. The Scottish antiquary, Pinkerton,
does not perhaps overrate the merits of Adam nan's
work when he declares it to be " the most complete
piece of such biography that Europe can boast of,
not only at so early a period, but even through the
whole Middle Ages." 2 And the latest and most
learned editor of the work declares that " Adamnan's
memoir is to be prized as an inestimable literary relic
of the Irish Church : perhaps, with all its defects, the
most valuable monument of that institution which has
escaped the ravages of time." J And we must add
that the inquirer into this period of Scottish ecclesias
tical history is fortunate not only in the possession of
this early memoir, but also fortunate to a very high
degree in the consummate learning and judgment
1 Dr. Reeves, Historians of Scotland, vol. vi,, p. xx,
- Enquiry, etc., vol. i., p. xlviii.
3 Reeves, ut supra, Preface, p. xxxi.
F
82 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
exercised in its illustration by the late Dr. William
Reeves, afterwards Bishop of Down and Connor.
The consideration of the supposed miraculous
occurrences recorded by Adamnan will be con
sidered in a separate chapter. We shall here
endeavour to sketch the life of Columba, as it may
be gathered from this work and from other ancient
records.
In our sketch of the planting of the Christian
Church in Scotland there now comes to be related an
event, seemingly insignificant, but in reality pregnant
with profound consequences to the future of religion,
not only in Scotland but in Britain generally, and,
indeed, not without its considerable influence on the
fortunes of the faith in various parts of the continent
of Europe.
One day, in the year of our Lord 563, there landed
upon a small island off the west coast of Scotland an
Irish monk, Columba by name, with twelve com
panions, who had accompanied him from his native
land.
It was not uncommon, in those days of violence,
rapine, and frequent tribal quarrels, for men who had
made choice of the life of monastic devotion to seek
for the more complete retirement and greater security
which were attainable by removing themselves out of
the track of wars, with the danger of enforced military
service, and away from the fear of the fierce marauding
bands, from whose savagery few parts of the mainland
were long exempt. Hence one of the characteristic
features of Irish monasticism— -its fondness for island
iON.V, 83
homes. The islands off the west coasts of Ireland
and Scotland abound to this day in ecclesiastical
memories ; and many shadowy traditions gather
round the remains of broken cross, ruined cell, or
roofless chapel, over which have swept the spray-
laden Atlantic storms of a thousand years.
In the particular case before us, other motives may
have been at work in determining the choice, in the
first instance, of "lona as a place of settlement, or, at
all events, the continued preference shown for it.
The little island that Columba made his home and
head-quarters for thirty-five years, while being indeed
a place of secure retirement, when retirement was
sought, proved also a serviceable basis of operation
in active missionary enterprise. Along the deeply-
indented coast-line of the west of Scotland a boat
with oars and sails gave the missionary of the sixth
century almost as many advantages as he would
possess at the present day. He could not, indeed, as
we can with the aid of steam, defy wind and tide ; but,
watching his opportunities, he could move about with
ease, and choose his own places and his own time for
landing and leaving.
In the monastic system of Ireland and Celtic
Scotland, as elsewhere, the continuous round of
Divine worship, the cultivation of the spirit of
devotion, the study of Divine truth, the practice of
self-discipline, were all duly cared for ; but with these
were conjoined on the part of the Celtic monks a
missionary zeal so earnest and an ardour of diffusive
Christian love so glowing, that the lives of their
84 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
recluses and anchorites are seldom thought of, and
our minds naturally dwell on the active and untiring
missionary labours which have achieved such great
things for the evangelization of our own land, and
which subsequently extended their beneficent influence
even to the remote regions of Germany and Switzer
land and Italy.
But who was this Columba ? His story has been
often told, and can never gain a hearing without
stirring men's hearts, for it is indeed the story of
a noble life, a life of high aims and unceasing
endeavour, a life full of loving sympathy with his
fellow-men, and of loving devotion to his Lord. And
if Columba was not without his failings and faults,
they are faults and failings that beset men of naturally
warm hearts, strong will, and eager temperament, and
such as are often found associated with the characters
of those who have made a deep impression upon their
fellows, and have gained for themselves commanding
stations in the history of the world, or of the Church.
Columba was born in Donegal in the year 521.
He belonged to the clan of the O'Donnels, which has
again and again figured largely in the subsequent
history of Ireland. He was descended on both
father and mother's side from the families of powerful
provincial princes.
We have seen that tradition has represented the
two other great figures that attract the eye when we
view the early history of religion in Scotland, St.
Ninian and St. Mungo, as also of royal blood. And
this, taken together with what we now learn was told
COLUMBA'S ROYAL DESCENT. 85
of St. Columba, may perhaps raise a suspicion in some
minds that there is something of romancing in these
old stories. But I do not think that farther consider
ation will bear out the suspicion — I mean as regards
this particular feature of the histories. It is true that
there was a temptation to the ancient hagiologists to
glorify their heroes by representing them as of exalted
birth ; but taking ail the evidence into account, we
may, I think, come to the conclusion that while in
the case of Columba his royal descent and connection
must be regarded as absolutely certain, in the other
cases, more particularly that of St. Ninian, there is no
sufficient reason to seriously question the statement.
Again, we should remember that the bringing up of a
child amid the traditions of a historic family, the
inspiring effect of the stirring tales of forefathers and
relations, and the comparative breadth of view that
must have been found in the circle of a great chief, as
contrasted with the mere personal cares and petty
occupations of the common crowd, would all have
helped to stimulate the imagination, and have made
easier the influence of ideal motives in initiating great
things. High courage and the spirit of adventure
often comes amid such surroundings ; and both were
indeed needed by the early Christian pioneers in
Britain. In the case of Columba, as we shall see, his
royal connections helped probably to determine his
choosing his settlement among the islands of the west
of Scotland. Again, we shall not be wrong in believ
ing that, among a people so keenly alive to the claims
of hereditary rank as the Celtic populations of Scotland
86 THF. CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
and Ireland, the advantages possessed by Columba
must have added vastly to his influence as preacher,
missionary, and monastic ruler.
At his baptism the boy was given, as is supposed,
the two names — Crimthann, a " wolf," and Colum, a
" dove." The former name, which might have been
very appropriate had the noble child devoted him
self in after life, like so many of his ancestors and
relations, to war and rapine, was dropped by the
Christian priest and missionary ; and Colm, or, in its
Latin form, Columba, is the name under which he
has become famous in Church history.1
Columba, it is said, was from early years devoted to
attendance on the services of the Church. We do not
find in his case, as in that of some others who in the
days of their subsequent penitence did great things
for Christ, that he was in early days led astray by the
seductions of the world or of youthful pleasures. He
is represented as from boyhood devoted to the prac
tice of piety, and as an eager student. He first
attended the monastic school of St. Finnian of Moville,
at the head of Strangford Lough ; and there he was
ordained deacon. He next moved south into Leinster,
1 In after time the word "kille" was sometimes added to the
word " Colm " — either on account, as is said, of the great number
of churches founded by him, or on account of his early devotion
to attendance at church. The name Colum in different forms
was a great favourite. The suffix an is a diminutive, and has
given us the very common name of Colman = Columan. Dr.
Gammack (in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Bio
graphy] supplies notices of 41 Colmans ; and Archbishop Usher
says that upwards of 230 of that name are to be found in records
of Irish saints.
MONASTERY OF CLONART). 87
and placed himself under the instruction of a secular
teacher — the " bard " Gem man. At a subsequent time
we shall find him exerting himself successfully for the
protection of the Irish bards (the professional poets
and chroniclers of Ireland), at the great Council of
Drumceatt. He was himself a skilful writer of verse,
and we possess, not only some remarkable Latin
hymns, but also some poems in his Irish vernacular,
which have been, not without reason, attributed to his
pen.1 Thus we see he did not despise what was the
chief form of secular culture known to his age and
country.
We next find Columba attending the most famous
school of ecclesiastical learning of that day in Ireland
— the monastery of Clonard, situated on* the upper
waters of the Boyne, under another St. Finnian.2
Clonard, in respect to the vast number of its monks
and students, reminds one of a mediaeval university.
Usher seems to accept the statement that reckons its
scholars as three thousand. And here Columba
remained for several years.3
It is of much interest to note that Columba, in
attending the schools of the two Finnians, became
probably acquainted with the monastic systems of
1 See Appendix I. for a translation of the poem Altus
Prosator attributed to Columba.
2 The name in the forms Finian, Finan, Fintan, Findan, etc. ,
is very common. It is the diminutive of Finn = white, i. c. prob
ably "the light-haired." Finnian of Moville is sometimes
referred to under the name Find-bar = white head.
3 The numbers at Clonard find a parallel in the case of the
Irish Bangor.
THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
both the north British school of Candida Casa (where
Finnian of Moville had studied), and also of the south
British, or Welsh, school of St. David (under whose
instruction at Menevia, Finnian of Clonard had been
a pupil). In Columba the influence of St. Ninian in
Galloway came back to another part of Scotland by a
strange route.
It is also interesting to know that both these St.
Finnians are commemorated in Scottish mediaeval
calendars, and that Finnian of Moville, appearing
under the form Vinnin or Wynnin, has, as has been
thought, given his name to the town of Kilwinning
in Ayrshire.
At Clonard Columba gained much skill in the art
of the copyist, which, in other hands, was brought
afterwards to such marvellous artistic perfection, as we
find in the superb decorations of the Book of Kclls
and other Irish manuscripts. It was while a resident
at Clonard that Columba was ordained Presbyter ;
and the story that refers to the incident is so curious
and instructive, that it is worth being related. Its
historic value, indeed, is of the slightest. Reeves
declares it to be a fiction of a later age, but it illus
trates very well some of the ecclesiastical usages of
the time. St. Finnian, who was at the head of the
great monastery, was not himself of higher rank than
presbyter, but perhaps he desired to have Columba
as a resident bishop, who would perform all the
needed episcopal duties of the place. Accordingly,
as the story runs, he sent Columba to Etchen, bishop
at the monastery of Clonfad (in Westmeath), with a
COLUMBA'S ORDINATION. 89
request for his consecration. On reaching Clonfad
and inquiring for the bishop, Columba is informed
that he is ploughing in a neighbouring field. On
finding the bishop and disclosing his errand, he is
received in a very kind manner, but through some
error as to the wishes of St. Finnian, or some other
unaccountable mistake, Columba is ordained only
priest, and not bishop. Now let us observe what may
be learned from this legend, supposing it to reflect
the ecclesiastical notions current at a very early date
in Ireland. We saw already that St. Mungo was con
secrated bishop by only one Irish bishop, and the
same practice — which, as I have said, has always been
reckoned by the Church generally as raHd, though
uncanonical and irregular — seems to have continued,
at least on occasions, till the twelfth century. Cer
tainly Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury (1070 —
1093), complained of the practice as existing in
Ireland in his day ; and the complaint was repeated
by his successor, Anselm (1093 — HI4).1
This curious story not only points to the practice of
consecration by a single bishop, but suggests the
notion that what is known as consecration per saltum
(that is, that consecration to the higher grade without
formally passing through the lower) was then recog
nized. Very many hundred years afterwards, when
James VI. desired to restore the episcopal succession
to Scotland, this question of per saltum consecration
was discussed, and the bishops of the Jacobean epis
copate were consecrated (with the sanction of the
1 Usher, /->/. Epist. Hibern. Sylloge, xxvii., xxxv., xxxvi.
QO THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
most learned theologians of England) without being
required to go through the inferior grades of deacon
and presbyter. The conferring of the higher office
was held to include the authority to exercise the
functions of the two lower.1
Columba appears never afterwards to have sought
the rank of bishop ; and the sentiment that it was
unbecoming that any of his successors should possess
a higher dignity than their great patron became a well-
defined practical rule of the Columban monasteries.
But we must hasten over the remainder of the story
of Columba in Ireland. After spending some time at
another monastery, that of Glasnevin (now a suburb
of Dublin, where are situated beautiful Botanic
Gardens and a great public cemetery), he devoted,
according to Bishop Reeves, some fifteen years to
planting churches and monasteries in various parts of
Ireland ; and in view of his subsequent settlement in
lona, it is not uninteresting to observe that some of
his Irish monasteries were situated in islands off the
coast, as, for example, Lambay, Rathlin, Tory, and
Inishowen.2
1 After the great rebellion, however, when in 1661 episcopacy
was again restored to Scotland, two Scottish divines — Leighton
and Sharp— consecrated bishops at Westminster, were required
to submit to previous ordination as deacons and presbyters.
The validity of the former consecrations to the episcopate (in
1610) was not indeed questioned, but it was probably thought
wiser to anticipate and prevent the raising of doubts at a later
time.
2 St. Columba's labours in Ireland have gained for him the
distinction of being reckoned in Ireland as one of "the Three
Patrons " of the country — St. Patrick and St. Brigid being the
other two.
COLUMBA LEAVES IRELAND. 91
We now come to the time when Columba entered
upon his labours in Scotland. This was not till he
had reached forty-two years of age, but the remaining
thirty-four years of a very active life were spent almost
wholly either in his home at lona, or among the other
islands, or on the mainland of Scotland, engaged
chiefly in the work of converting the heathen Picts of
the north, and in teaching and building up the
scattered and enfeebled Christian communities of men
of his own race already existing in the western
highlands.
Why did Columba leave Ireland ? Different reasons
have been assigned. Some contend that the love of
God and of his brethren was to him a sufficient motive,
and that his immediate objects were the instruction of
the Christian Irish of the principality in Argyll, and
the conversion of their neighbours, the Northern Picts.1
It is necessary to be acquainted with the fact that for
some considerable time before Columba' s day, Scots
from the north coast of Antrim, and belonging to the
district called Dalriada, had been emigrating to the
west of what is now Scotland, passing over the narrow
channel that separated them from the Scottish main
land. They probably might easily land in Cantire,
and spread up along the western coast of Argyll ; and
so they founded another principality of Dalriada, and
laid the foundations of that other Scotia or Scotland,
1 See Dr. George Grub, EccL Hist, of Scot., vol. i., p. 49, and
Dr. Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol., ii. p. 79 ; and this view seems
to be accepted as the more probable by Prof. Stokes, Ireland
and the Celtic Church , p. 112 sq.
92 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
which eventually took sole possession of the name.
'The great body of these Dalriads was Christianized
> before their emigration to Britain. Conal, the reigning
prince of the British Dalriads at the time of Columba's
first visiting that region, was a kinsman of the saint.
Those who care to trace the genealogy and family history
of Columba can do so with the help of Bishop Reeves ;
but it must suffice here to say that Columba's royal
descent and connections served him in good stead in
his work among the Scots in the region of Argyll and
the more southern islands.
Professor Stokes, who here substantially follows
Skene,1 suggests (and I think he has here rightly
gauged the high spirit and chivalrous temper of the
man) that the imminent danger to which the new colony
was exposed of extinction at the hands of the pagan
Picts, stirred the heart of Columba to go to the effective
assistance of his brethren, by bringing to their aid, " not
the might of temporal warfare, but of those spiritual
weapons which alone can curb and restrain unre-
generate nature." Certainly it was only two or three
years before the arrival of Columba among the British
Scots that they had received a terrible defeat from the
Northern Picts, under their warlike and, as Bede calls
him, "most powerful king," Brude, whom we shall
presently meet again in the history of Columba.
What would have deterred timid natures may well
1 Skene says plainly, "This great reverse (?. e. the defeat of
' the British Scots by Brude) called forth the mission of Columba,
f commonly called Columcille. and led to the foundation of the
! monastic Church in Scotland." Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., p. 79.
REASON FOR LEAVING IRELANb. 93
have acted as a powerful attraction to the generous,
ardent, and right-royal soul of Columba.
Such seems a probable account of the reasons that
actuated Columba in seeking this new field of labour,
as they commend themselves to some among our
ablest recent historians.
Bishop Reeves, however, is evidently not disposed
to regard as altogether valueless the account which,
from a very early date, had currency and acceptance
in Ireland, and which represents the settlement of
Columba at lona as an involuntary exile, due to
ecclesiastical censures passed upon him for the part
taken by him in originating and urging on a war in
which much Christian blood was shed on both sides.1
At any rate, there might be just cause of complaint
against me if I were to omit a story which, even if
without historical foundation, is often referred to, and
which should therefore, if for no better reason, be
known to those who claim to possess acquaintance
with the life of.lhe saint.
Briefly told, the story runs as follows. His old
teacher, St. Finnian of Moville gave on one occasion
permission to Columba to examine, for the purpose
of study, a manuscript of the Book of Psalms, or, as
some say, a manuscript of the Gospels, which was
Finnian's property. But Columba was not content
1 The Rev. II. J. Lawlor has observed very justly that the two
accounts are not inconsistent. " St. Columba (i) determined to
engage in missionary work : this may have been in consequence
of the judgment of Molaise ; (2) he chose a particular sphere of
work : to this he may have been guided by the considerations
referred to by Skene and Stokes."
94 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
with only reading the book ; he forthwith proceeded
to make a transcript of it. When the account of this
infringement of copyright reached the ears of St.
Finnian, it roused him to warm indignation. He de
manded that the copy should be handed over to him,
together with the original. This demand Columba
stoutly refused ; and eventually it was resolved that
the question in dispute should be referred to the
decision of the King of Meath. The king in full
court decided against Columba. The principle on
which the decision was based was one laid down in the
Brehon law; and the judgment was delivered, ''To
every cow her calf belongs, and so to every book its
child-book." Columba's proud temper would not
brook this adverse ruling, and he resolved to resort to
arms with the aid of his clansmen, the Northern Hy-
Neill. No doubt he would represent it to himself as
a struggle, not on account of a paltry book, but for the
sake of a principle of justice and right. We know
how easy it is for good men when angry to find that
they are not contending for self but for principle. A
battle was fought at Cooldrevny (somewhere between
the town of Sligo and the neighbouring Drumcliffe).
Victory went with the Ulster allies of Columba, and
3000 men of Meath were reckoned among the slain.
I offer no opinion on the probability of this story ; I
would only say that in estimating the evidence we
should not fail to take into account the fierce spirit of
the age. Again, we must not omit to remember the
very slight occasions that have at almost all times been
found sufficient in Ireland to stir up clan-feuds ; nor,
EXCOMMUNICATION 'OF COUJMiU. 95
finally, the historical fact that at that time, and long
after, it was not considered derogatory to the members
of the monasteries to bear arms and take an active part
in bloody wars.
The story in one of its forms then goes on to say
that Columba, after the slaughter at Cooidrevny, con
sulted his " soul-friend," /. e. his confessor and spiritual
adviser, Molaise, who then lived on the wild island of
Inismurray, six miles off the Sligo coast.1 Perhaps
Columba was already suffering the excommunication
by an ecclesiastical synod of which we hear in another
account. Indeed, we have the authority of Adamnan
for saying that he was for a time excommunicated \
Adamnan says for trivial faults, and, as it afterwards
appeared, unjustly. At any rate, Molaise is said to
have enjoined upon Columba as a penance to leave
his dear Ireland, and to devote himself to missionary
labours among the heathen Picts until he had con
verted to Christ as many souls as his recent conduct
had brought down to death upon the battle-field.
In accord with the story I have now related, is the
further feature of the legend (which is certainly not
without a tender and poetic beauty of its own), that
Columba, attended by twelve companions, having
sailed from Ireland in compliance with the penance
enjoined upon him, first landed at the island of Oron-
say ; but finding that from the highest point of the
1 See an extremely interesting account of this island and its
ecclesiastical remains, quoted by Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic
Church, vol. i., p. 184 sy. I have visited Inismurray, and can
testify to the profoundly interesting character of the place.
<;f) THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
land he could still see the distant coast-line of his
beloved Ireland, he again embarked, and finally
settled at lona, after having satisfied himself that no
longer was Ireland visible.1
From the documents sifted and examined in the
historic spirit, it would appear that a grant of the
island of lona was made to Columba by his kinsman
Conal, the reigning prince of the colony of Dalriads in
Scotland ; and it seems not improbable that before the
landing of Columba on lona, the island already con
tained a Christian community. But, however this may
have been, henceforth lona was to be for ever associ
ated pre-eminently with the name of Columba.
The eventful landing of Columba in lona is to be
' placed, as has been said, in the year of our Lord 563.
Columba, having built a church and monastic cells
of a rude kind, and generally organized his little com
munity in the island, soon turned his attention to
labour among his Irish brethren in British Dalriada,
and more especially to the grand design of Chris
tianizing the enemies at once of his countrymen and
of the faith — the northern pagan Picts.
At this time the kingdom of the Pictish king,
Brude, the son of Mailcon, was powerful and widely
extended. The principal residence of the king was
situated not far from Inverness.- Columba was at-
1 It has been conjectured by some that Columba's leaving
Ireland was a self-inflicted penance.
2 Reeves places the royal residence at the vitrified fort of
Craigphadrick, the remains of which are still to be seen ; but
Skene, as I think, with more reason, is disposed in favour of
Torvean, or else the eminence known as the Crown. Celtic
Scotland, vol. ii., p. 1 06
VISIT TO KING BRUDE. 97
tended on his journey to the fortress of Brude by
some of his trusty companions. Two of them, both
famous in Church history, were Picts by race, though
of the Irish branch ; and it looks like what might be
called an " undesigned coincidence " to find them
associated in the narrative with the mission to the
Picts of the north. One was Comgall, abbot of the
famous monastery of Bangor in the county of Down.
The other was Cainnech or Canice, who has given
his name to the ancient city and cathedral of Kil
kenny. He was known in Scotland as Kenneth, and,
judging from the number of churches dedicated under
' his name, he was second only to St. Columba and St.
Bride (/. e. Brigid) in popularity.1
The Christian monks, when they arrived at the
palace of King Brude, were met by closed and fastened
doors ; but before the sign of the cross, as the story
is told, the locks flew back, the gates opened, and
Columba and his companions entered.
The Life of St. Columba, by Adamnan (of which we
shall have to speak more fully later on), abounds from
beginning to end with stories of the miraculous, and,
as we shall hereafter have occasion to observe, many
of them are intractable by any fair process, and must
either be accepted as they stand, or else be set down as
pure inventions, or at all events inventions with only
the smallest grain of truth for a basis. In this par
ticular instance, however, it is easy to see how some
metaphorical expression as to the wonderful removal
1 See, for a list of dedications, Forbes' Kalendars of Scottish
Saints, p. 297.
G
98 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
of formidable obstructions to the preaching of the
faith, and "the opening of a door " (in Pauline phrase
ology) for the servants of the Cross might have
originated the story.1 King Brude is represented as
awe-struck by what had happened ; he receives the
missionaries with reverence, and in due time re-
' nounces heathenism, and is baptized into the faith
1 of Christ. With the conversion of the king came
1 rapidly the conversion of the people, after the manner
not uncommon among the Celts, with whom the
honour due to the chief is often regarded as demand
ing that his people shall follow his wishes in respect
to creed and religion as in other things.2
Here it is natural to ask the question : What was
the character of the paganism of the Picts ? Skene
has investigated the subject with his customary
thoroughness, and has come to the conclusion that it
did not differ substantially from the paganism of the
Scots of Ireland. Accordingly, the documents relating
incidentally to the early religions of both countries may
be considered together. Unfortunately the notices of
Irish and Scottish heathenism are not very numerous,
and nowhere do we get a detailed description of it.
But the result of inquiry leads one to believe that
there was certainly no largely developed or elaborate
mythology. The late learned Dr. James Henthorn
Todd goes indeed so far as to say that " there is no
evidence of their having had any personal gods." 3 The
1 See i Cor. xv. 9 ; 2 Cor. ii. 12 ; Col. iv. 3.
2 Illustrations of this statement may be found in the Scottish
Highlands within modern times. s Life of St. Patrick, p. 414.
THE DRUIDS. 99
sun, the moon, and the stars, the sea, the rivers and
wells, the clouds and the mountains, were certainly
objects of religious veneration, but whether only as the
habitations of the earth-gods (whom the Christian
missionaries regarded as demons) or not, it is difficult
to say.
In the early lives of the Celtic missionary saints their
most vigorous opponents are certain persons called
Druids (Druad/i) or, in the Latin records, magi. But
these Druids do not recall to us the sacerdotal figures
that are pictured under that name in Caesar's familiar
account of the religion of the Gauls ; they are pre
sented rather as sorcerers, magicians, and, if we may
borrow the name from South African paganism,
" medicine-men." It is now generally acknowledged
that the stone circles and cromlechs that are to be
found in various parts of the country do not exhibit to
us the remains of heathen temples and altars, but are,
in truth, sepulchral monuments. The magi of the
Columban records are not apparently priests, but
wizards, who have gained control over the powers,
personal or impersonal, that underlie the forces of
nature. There was much, in this Druidism, of the
religion of fear. Magical rites, spells, and incantations,
designed to ward off the ill-will of the dread mysterious
powers, or to stimulate and direct their energies against
enemies, are a common feature in the narratives.
It is of deep interest to observe how these preten
sions of the magi, or Druids, were met by the Christian
missionaries. In general, it would seem that the
missionaries themselves accepted the supernatural
100 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
character of the power possessed by the Druids, but
! regarded it as obtained, through God's permission,
' from evil spirits. Hence there is no attempt made by
the missionaries to disprove the Druids' miraculous
performances, no. attempt to expose them, as would
: probably be the mode of procedure with our modern
missionaries in similar circumstances. Columba and
the other ancient saints are not represented as explain
ing away the marvels of their opponents, but as out-
rivalling them. And the contests that are pictured to
us at once recall to mind the trials of strength between
Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the magicians of
Egypt, in the Old Testament story. To take an
example from the history of St. Columba. On the
saint letting it be known on what day he was about to
leave the Court of King Brude, the powerful Druid,
Broichan, told him that on that day he could not
depart, for that he (Broichan) would raise a contrary
wind, and bring down the darkness of mist from the
mountains. Columba replied that all our actions
are in the hands of God, who would do as seemed to
Him fit. On the day fixed, as the Druid had foretold,
a contrary wind arose and increased to a tempest,
while great darkness came down upon the lake (Loch
Ness). But Columba, despite the murmurs of the
sailors, embarks, orders the canvas to be spread in the
teeth of the gale, and sails his boat triumphantly
against the wind, to the amazement of the assembled
crowd. Adamnan, commenting on this, observes that
it is not to be wondered at that God should at times
permit the demons to exercise their power upon the
BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL. IOI
winds and waves. There is no attempt at explaining
the storm on that day by suggesting that it was a coin
cidence, any more than there is an attempt to ration
alize the wonder of Columba's navigation, as some
might do, by supposing him to be sailing " very close
to the wind."1
Now, if we succeed in reconstructing in imagination
the then existing conditions of social life, I think we shall
be satisfied that it must have been far easier to effect
the conversion of the people on the principles accepted
by Columba and his followers than it would have been
had the missionaries attempted to show that the much-
honoured magi were mere impostors, and the prevailing
faith in the supernatural utterly baseless. As it was,
the missionaries admitted the reality of the heathen
miracles, but declared that He whom they served
could do yet greater things, and manifest His superior
power. There is no escaping the conclusion that the
Celtic missionaries and the Fathers of the Celtic
Church were themselves unhesitating believers in what
would in our time be regarded as puerile superstitions.
But we may well believe that in the providence of God
such a nearness of intellectual level between teacher
and taught materially assisted their evangelistic labours.
And we are instructed in the lesson, which we shall
again and again have to bear in mind, that a great
body of baseless superstitions may be held compatibly
with large measures of Divine truth, with the most
sincere piety, and with high intellectual ability and
acumen.
1 Vita S> ColumlhC) lib. ii., c. 35.
102 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
On the part of most modern writers dealing with
the lives of the great pioneers of the Faith in Britain,
there seems to be a shrinking from telling those
portions of their histories that indicate the wide
difference in the intellectual standpoints of those times
and of these. The feeling is prompted, I dare say, by
the sentiment of reverence for those great servants of
God. Yet I am sure that if we only attain to a true
understanding of the situation, neither respect nor
reverence will be wanting, even when we are at first
tempted to smile at the grotesque forms in which
the beliefs of those distant days very frequently took
their shape.
The conversion of the Northern Picts was the great
triumph of Columba's missionary efforts. The labours
involved in this undertaking are unfortunately scarcely
touched by his biographers ; but we can gather that
his whole life was one full of activity, and occupied by
many interests. Beside his toils among the heathen,
there were many toils among his Christian brethren of
the mainland and of the neighbouring islands. His
own community on lona held a place of first import
ance in his heart. But the care and oversight of very
many daughter monasteries and churches in the islands
and in Ireland could not be escaped ; and we find him
not confining himself to his island home, but from time
to time, as the occasion required, visiting the Western
Isles, the mainland of Scotland, and even Ireland.
Affairs of general interest, at times affairs of political
interest, would lay hold on him. Thus he takes the
important step of " ordaining" Aidan to be King of
IRISH BARDS. 103
Dalriada, although the right of succession and his
private preference indicated another for that dignity.
Again, in the year 575, he attends a great gathering of
chieftains and ecclesiastics held at Drumceatt (situated
not far from Newtown-Limavady, in the county
Londonderry). He accompanied the King of British
Dalriada, and was himself attended (if we may trust
the saint's poetical panegyrist, Dalian Forgaill) by
twenty bishops, forty priests, fifty deacons, and twenty
students. At this " Synod " of Drumceatt — a very im
portant assembly, which is said to have lasted for
fourteen months — Columba helped to effect the ex
emption of the settlers in Albanian Dalriada from the
payment of tribute to the chief King of Ireland.
Another result of the intervention of Columba on this
occasion is said to have been the mitigation of the
harsh measures which it was designed to apply to the
Irish " bards " — a class hitherto formally recognized,
and possessing important privileges. The " bards "
were at this time extremely numerous, and vexatiously
exacting in their demand for maintenance for them
selves and their retinue1 as they travelled through the
country. Any reluctance to yield to their requests was
met by a threat that satirical verses could be readily
produced, and might prove disagreeable. In fact, the
" bards " had, by their large numbers and by their ex
cessive greed and annoyance, become a nuisance, and
the Irish Congress, or " Synod," was about to abate
the nuisance by abolishing the order of the bards alto-
1 Coinmed( — refection) was the name euphemistically given to
this claim of the bards.
104 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
gether.1 Columba successfully pleaded for them, and
laid down limitations as to the number of followers to
be allowed to each bard, with a view to lessening the
grievance not unnaturally complained of.2 On this
occasion also, Columba exerted himself to obtain the
release from captivity of Scannlan Mor, a prince of
Ossory. In the attempt he was perhaps unsuccessful,
but we see from the proceedings at Drumceatt, what is
elsewhere confirmed, that Columba possessed a force
and vigour of character that was capable of display
ing itself in social, public, and state affairs, not less
than in the more obscure field of missionary effort and
of ecclesiastical economics and government. Had
Columba lived in later days and amid different sur
roundings, he might perhaps have presented to us, in
one aspect of his character, the figure, as we may
imagine, of a great cardinal or other powerful prelate,
adroit in state-craft, and zealous in advancing the
claims of the party which he had espoused. Nor do I
think there is anything improbable in the supposition
that Columba was concerned, after the founding of the
settlement in lona, in the battle of Coleraine, fought
on account of a dispute, probably about ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, between him and St. Comgall, of Bangor.3
The name of Columba is also connected, though in a
less definite way, with a third battle, fought only ten
the Irish king, had already issued against them a
decree of banishment.
2 It was in gratitude for Columba's exertions on behalf of the
bards that their head, Dalian Forgaill, composed his Amhra
Cholnimchille, or Praises of Cohiinkille, see p. in.
3 In County Down, on Belfast Lough.
TRIBAL QUARRELS. 105
years before his death, between the northern and
southern branches of the Hy Neill. At this distance
of time, and with little or no information as to the cir
cumstances, we are quite incapable of forming a judg
ment on the Tightness or wrongness of Columba's
supposed participation in these quarrels and the con
sequent bloodshed. We know that in days of
savagery or semi-barbarism it is not uncommon to find
that physical force is the only remedy that can be em
ployed against the violence of injustice. And we have
to remember, as already observed, that the sentiment
of the time was in no degree outraged or wounded by
members of the monastic brotherhoods bearing arms
and engaging in the bloody wars of tribal factions.1
The quick, high-spirited, and passionate natural
temperament of this great man must not be dropped
out of sight if we are to do him justice. But it is to
other aspects of his character that we more readily
turn. His spirit of self-denial, his devotion to the
cause of Christ, his considerateness for others, his
1 "It was not until 804 that the monastic communities of
Ireland were formally exempted from military service. . . .
That even among themselves the members of powerful com
munities were not insensible to the spirit of faction appears from
numerous entries in the ancient annals. Of these, two — of which
one relates to a Columban house — may here be adduced as ex
amples : A.D. 673, 'A battle was fought between the fraternities
of Clonmacnois and Durrow, where Dermod Duff was killed . . .
with 200 men of the fraternity of Durrow . . .' A.D. 816, ' A
battle was fought by Cathal, son of Dunlang, and the fraternity
of Tigh-Munna, against the fraternity of Ferns, in which 400
were slain. "; Reeves? Introduction to Adamnan's Life of St.
Columba, xlviii. (Historians of Scotland, vol. vi.). Other illus
trations may be found in Prof. Stokes' Ireland and the Celtic
Church, Lectures V. and X.
106 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
affection and tenderness for the brethren, his kindness
even to dumb animals, and similar traits, make us able
to understand how it was that he secured the enthusi
astic love of the members of the fraternity at lona, and
indeed of all his monasteries.
"What did St. Columba look like?" some one may
ask. " What do we know of his personal appearance ? "
Questions of this kind are the first I myself wish to
have answered when I come to study any man's
biography. " What like was he ? " was the question
which the great historical painter — if I may not call him
the great historian — Thomas Carlyle, was wont, more
Scoticano, to ask about each character of the past that
caught his fancy. In a letter of Carlyle's which,
though little known as being buried ten fathom deep
in the Proceedings of one of our learned societies,
is full of interest, we read : " I have to tell you, as a
fact of personal experience, that in all my poor
historical investigations it has been, and always is, one
of the most primary wants to procure a bodily like
ness of the personage inquired after ; a good Portrait,
if such exists ; failing that, even an indifferent if
sincere one. In short, any representation, made by a
faithful human creature of that face and figure which
he saw with his eyes, and which I can never see with
mine, is now valuable to me, and much better than
none at all ... Often I have found a Portrait superior
in real instruction to half-a-dozen written 'Biographies,'
as biographies are written ; or rather, let me say, I
have found that the Portrait was as a small lighted
candle by which the Biographies could for the first
PORTRAIT OF COLUMBA. 1 07
time be read, and some human interpretation be made
of them ; the Biographical Personage no longer an
impossible Phantasm or distracting Aggregate of
inconsistent rumours."1
Now, a contemporary portrait of Columba, in the
sense here intended by Carlyle, we do not possess ;
nor, if we did possess one, would it be of much value,
for however admirably skilled the Irish decorative
artists were in other directions, they seem to have
been ostentatiously, even grotesquely, indifferent to
any exactness of realism in the attempted portraiture
of the human face and figure. All we can do then is
to look for some vivid description of the personal ap
pearance of this great missionary and saint, and failing
that, to piece together as best we may the incidental
notices that help to show us in any degree what
manner of man he was. Even in this respect, un
fortunately, the material is scanty, and lacking in the
definiteness and precision that our age so eagerly
demands. We may perhaps believe that Columba was
tall and dignified in bearing, and that he had brilliant
eyes, as later authorities aver. Adamnan tells he was
"like an angel in appearance," and was "endeared to
all, for a holy joy always beamed from his countenance
manifesting the inner gladness with which the Holy
Spirit filled his heart." -'
A powerful voice of great sweetness is referred to
1 Letter to David Laing on the subject of Scottish Historical
Portraits, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland ',
vol. i., part iii.
- Vita^ secnnda Prefatio.
108 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
more than once, and the distance at which the words,
and even syllables, were distinctly heard when he sang
the Psalms seemed to his biographers to point to the
miraculous — more especially, as to those who stood in
the church with him his voice did not seem louder
than the voices of others.1 The advantages of such a
sonorous and yet musical voice to a preacher, many of
whose sermons must have been delivered in the open
air, was doubtless very great. There are other sug
gestions in Adam nan's Life of Columba of a physical
vigour and energy, which independently we might be
led to suspect from the laborious character of the
career of the saint.
The outlines of his mental, moral, and spiritual
portrait may be more clearly gathered. When the
head of a large and widespread community commands,
as Columba did, the respect and admiration as well as
the affection of its members, we cannot doubt his
possession of many intellectual endowments. His
biographer represented the general sentiment when he
declared that Columba's intellectual abilities were of
1 " The voice of the venerable man, when singing in the church
with the brethren, raised in a marvellous manner, was heard
sometimes at a distance of four stadia, that is 500 paces, some
times at a distance of eight stadia, that is 1000 paces." The
poet Dalian Forgaill may be excused for the poetic licence
of augmentation when he sang —
" The sound of his voice, Columcille's,
Great its sweetness above all clerics ;
To the end of fifteen-hundred paces,
Vast spaces, it was clear."
Adamnan is careful to note that this peculiarity was only rarely
observed.
INTELLECTUAL ENDOWMENTS. 109
the highest order and his practical wisdom great.1
His tenderness and readiness to sympathize with the
sorrows and joys of others, united with a certain
reserve and dignity that are not commonly found in
combination with effusive sympathies, made a marked
feature in his character. His indignation at injustice
and cruelty, his affection for the brethren, his more
than perfunctory hospitality to strangers, are constantly
showing themselves in the incidents of his life as
recorded by his successor. Like a true Celt, as he
was, he gave ready expression to his emotions. We
read of his smiles and his tears — sometimes of tears
in copious abundance. Columba has been accused
even by admirers 2 of a vindictive temper ; and the
evident satisfaction with which his biographer multi
plies instances where men of violence, murderers, and
oppressors of the innocent were overtaken by death or
misfortune, as foretold by the saint, seem at first to the
hasty reader to lend colour to the charge. But the
exact line where righteous indignation ends and the sin
of vindictiveness begins it is not easy for the moralist
to define. The wild life of that period of miserable
disorder was not such as to promote the growth of the
gentler virtues among any who were brought into
contact with it. It was certainly not personal slights
or indignities, as such, but wrong and injustice to others
that ordinarily roused the anger of Columba.3
1 " Ingenio optimus, consilio magnus," Secunda Pro:/.
2 For example, by Montalembert.
3 Again, his biographer represents the saint rather as pre
dicting than as invoking a just retribution upon wrong-doers.
IIO THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
The laborious and untiring industry of Columba is
testified to by Adamnan. Not an hour of the day
passed without its occupations in prayer, or reading, or
writing, or some other task. His fastings and his
vigils were carried to an extent that seemed to surpass
the powers of man's endurance, and yet he maintained
the sweetness and the brightness of disposition that do
not always accompany vigorous self-discipline.1 He
had all the tender and passionate affection of the Celt
for the land of his birth. Again, his widely diffused
benevolence did not check the ardour of devoted
personal friendships.
Nor can we pass over, as contributing to the fullness
of the portrait, glimpses that show us a real sympathy
with the brute creation. For example, Columba on
one occasion gives directions to one of the brethren to
feed and tend a poor crane, which, completely ex
hausted by its long flight from Ireland, fell upon the
western shore of the island of lona;2 while the story
has been often told how, on the evening before the
death of the saint, the pack-horse that used to carry
the milk-vessels to the monastery, thrusting his nose
into the bosom of the aged man as, in his weariness,
he rested himself by the road-side, received from his
grateful heart a farewell benediction.3
Any one who reads Adamnan's Life of St. Columba
will not regard the praises Dalian Forgaill bestowed
upon his memory as a mere professional e/oge. The
1 Secunda Prof at.
2 Adamnan, lib. i., c. 35.
3 Id., lib. i., c. 24.
PERSONAL INFLUENCE. Ill
words of the bard are felt in the main to express just
the impression which the study of the biography has
left behind, and they are comparatively free from the
mere generalities of epitaph laudation. Mr. Skene
thus cites the words of the poet, who describes the
people as mourning over him who was " their souls'
light, their learned one, their chief from right, — who
was God's messenger, who dispelled fears from them,
who used to explain the truth of words, — a harp with
out a base cord, a perfect sage who believed in Christ ;
he was learned, he was chaste, he was charitable; he
was an abounding benefit of guests, he was eager, he
was noble, he was gentle, he was the physician of the
heart of every sage ; he was to persons inscrutable ; he
was a shelter to the naked, he was a consolation to the
poor; there went not from the world one who was
more continual for a remembrance of the cross." 1
It has been claimed for one of the greatest men of
letters in modern Europe 2 that his heart, which few
knew, was as great as his intellect, which all knew. I
shall not venture to say whether in that particular case
facts justify the claim. But it is certain that great
and widespread personal influence has been oftenest
found where the warmth of the affections and the rich
ness and sensibility of the emotional side of nature bulk
large in combination with intellectual capacity and
force of purpose. It is then that those with whom
a great man comes in contact become not only his
1 Amhra Choluimchillc, as cited by Skene, Celtic Scotland,
vol. ii., p. 145.
2 Goethe.
112 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
admiring disciples, but his ardent and enthusiastic
followers. The affection, the loyal personal devotion
which he inspires, far outweighs in practical value the
ill-effects that are produced by the occasional errors of
a hasty judgment, and of an impulsive and eager
temperament. Columba's influence was due, we can
scarcely doubt, in large measure to his combining in
his own person the various and rarely united sources
of power to which I refer.
Columba's labours included several voyages to
Ireland, and journeys among the Irish monasteries.
He also at times penetrates into the country of his
converts, the Picts, beyond " the dorsal ridge of
Britain." From time to time, probably for the sake
of retirement and opportunities for more undistracted
devotion, he visits and sojourns for a while in the little
island of Hinba, which Reeves and Skene would
identify with Eilean-na-Naoimh, a little further to the
south of lona, north-west of Scarba, and where the
ruined remains of a little church and of two bee-hive
cells are still to be seen.1
His was a busy life of unceasing labour. After
thirty years in lona had been completed, he seems to
have felt his infirmities crowding upon him. He told
his disciples that for many days he had been praying
for his release that he might go to his "heavenly
fatherland." But, as he added, "the prayers of many
churches" had gone up to God that he might stay
longer with them, and four years were to be added to
his life. At the completion of the four years his end
1 See p. 294.
LAST DAYS OF COLUMBA. 113
was approaching. Following the account of Adamnan,
and for the most part merely translating his words, we
learn the affecting story of the saint's last days. It
seems to me to possess a singular air of truthfulness ;
and I give it in all its quaint simplicity, One day in
the month of May, the old man, now worn-out with
age, was drawn in a cart to visit the brethren at work
in the western plain of the island, about a mile from
the monastery, and calling them to him he began to
say, " During the Paschal solemnities in April with
desire I desired to depart to the Lord Christ, as He
had granted that I should if I preferred it. But lest
for you the festival of joy should be turned into
mourning, I chose to put off a little longer the day of
my departure from the world." At this saying the
monks were deeply grieved, and he sought as well as
he could to cheer them with words of consolation.
And then, still seated in the cart, he turned his face
to the east, and blessed both the island and them
that dwelt therein. When he had finished the words
of blessing he was carried back to the monastery. A
H
114 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
few days afterwards, when he was celebrating mass as
usual upon the Lord's Day, the face of the venerable
man, as his eyes were raised to heaven, seemed
brightened with a ruddy glow. Afterwards, in answer
to the inquiries of the brethren, he told them how he
had seen the angel of the Lord, who had come " to
seek for a certain deposit dear to God." At a later
time they came to understand that he spoke of his
own soul.
The following Saturday (dies Sabbati} was the last
day of his life. On that day, accompanied by his
faithful and attached attendant, Diarmit, the vener
able man went to bless the neighbouring barn. And,
when he had entered, he blessed the barn and two
heaps of winnowed com that were in it ; and then he
spoke these words in thanksgiving: "I rejoice ex
ceedingly, my children of the monastery (nionachi
familiares\ that this year also, if I must depart from
you, ye will have a supply sufficient for the year."
And when Diarmit heard him thus speak, he said,
" O Father, thou grievest us by so often making
mention of thy departure." The saint made answer,
" I have a secret to tell thee in few words, and if
thou wilt faithfully promise to disclose it to no one
before my decease, I shall be able to speak more
plainly about my departure." When Diarmit had
promised on bended knees, as the saint desired, the
venerable man spoke and said, " This day is called in
the sacred books the Sabbath, which, being inter
preted, is Rest; and 'to me in very truth this day is
the Sabbath, for it is for me the last day of this life of
FORETELLS HIS DEATH. 115
toil, the day upon which, after the anxieties and
troubles of my labours, I go to rest (sabbatizo). In
the middle of this approaching night of the sacred
Lord's Day I shall, in the language of the Scriptures,
go the way of our fathers ; for now my Lord Jesus
Christ vouchsafes to call me, and to Him, I say, who
calls me, in the middle of this night shall I depart.
For so it has been revealed to me by the Lord Him
self." When his attendant heard these sad words he
began to weep, while the saint tried to comfort him
as well as he could.
After this the saint comes forth from the barn ; and
as he returned towards the monastery arid had gone
half-way, he sits down at the place where afterwards
the cross was erected, fixed in a mill-stone, where it
may be seen at this day, says Adamnan, by the side
of the road. And while the saint, wearied with age,
was sitting there, and resting a little while, the white
horse,1 that obedient servant that had been accus
tomed to carry the milk-vessels backwards and
forwards between the cow-shed and the monastery,
approached, and coming close to the saint — strange
to say — laid his head in the saint's bosom and began
to whine, and, like a human being, to shed tears in
abundance upon the breast of the saint, and with
water dropping from his mouth began to make his
1 A recent writer relating this incident calls the animal an
"old" horse. But a horse may be "white " without being old.
The same writer, a few lines later, exercising the same spirit
of reading into the narrative his own fancies, tells us that "at
midnight he (Columba) crept into the chapel." Now that is
what might be well supposed of a sick old man ; but the original
Il6 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
moan. Diarmit wanted to drive off the sorrowing
creature, but the saint forbade him, saying, " Surfer him,
surfer him, since he loves me, to pour out his grief into
my bosom. Thou, though thou art a man with a rational
soul, could in no way have known of my departure if I
had not told thee ; but to this brute and unreasoning
animal the Creator in His own way has revealed that
his master is about to leave him." And then he blessed
the sorrowing horse as he turned away from him .
After this the saint arose, and ascending the little
hill above the monastery, he stood for a little on its
top, and standing there, he lifted up both his hands
and blessed the monastic buildings, saying, " This
place, though it be mean to look at and narrow in
its bounds, shall be honoured with great and distin
guished honour, not only by the kings and people of
the Scots, but by the rulers of barbarous and foreign
nations with their subject peoples. And even the saints
of other churches shall hold it in great reverence."
After these words he descended the little hill, and
returning to the monastery, he sat writing the Psalter
in his hut ; and when he came to that versicle of the
thirty-third Psalm l where it is written, " They that seek
the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good,"
he said, " Here at the end of the page I must stop ;
and what follows let Baithene write." At this point
Adamnan interposes his comment, that as the last
tells us that he ran in before the rest, and if one were disposed
to rationalize, we may suppose that a coroner's jury would have
attributed the saint's death to a failure of the action of the heart.
1 In our English versions, Psalm xxxiv. 9.
LAST COMMANDS. 1 17
verse written by St. Columba was very appropriate to
one about to enter on the good things of the eternal
kingdom, so the next was equally appropriate to the
new abbat, father and teacher of his spiritual children
— " Come, ye children, and hearken unto me : I will
teach you the fear of the Lord."
When the saint had completed writing the verse,
he entered the church for the vesper office preceding
the Lord's Day, and when it was finished he returned
again to his little chamber, and rested for the night
on his bed, where he had, instead of straw, a bare flag
with a stone for a pillow, which at this day, adds
Adamnan, stands like a kind of monument beside his
grave.1 While he was resting thus upon his bed he
gave his last commands to the brethren ; but Diarmit,
his attendant, was the only one who heard him speak
ing. "O my children," said he, "receive ye these
last words of mine. Have peace and unfeigned
charity among yourselves ; and if ye thus follow fhe
examples of the holy fathers, God, the Comforter of
the good, will be your helper. And I, dwelling with
Him, will intercede for you. And He will not only
supply you with a sufficiency of the things needed for
this life present, but will also bestow on you the
eternal rewards prepared for them that keep His com
mandments." After these words, as Adamnan goes
on to relate, the holy man kept silence. And at
] The visitor to lona may see deposited in the east end of the
cathedral a rounded stone, which it has been found necessary to
protect from relic-loving tourists by an iron cage. This is shown
as, and may be in fact, " St. Columba's pillow,"
Il8 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
midnight, when the bell sounded, he rose in haste and
passed to the church, and running more quickly than
the others, he entered alone, and on bended knees he
knelt beside the altar in prayer. His attendant,
Diarmit, with some others, as they were coming up
a little after, saw the whole building filled with a
heavenly light, but when they came to the door the
light faded suddenly. Then Diarmit, entering, called
repeatedly in a voice broken with sorrow, li Where art
thou, father ? " And before the brethren had brought
the lights, feeling his way in the darkness, he found
the abbot lying in front of the altar. He lifted him
up a little, and sitting beside him, propped his holy
head upon his bosom. In the meantime the body of
the monks ran in with the lights ; and when they saw
their father dying they burst into lamentations. Then
Diarmit raised the holy right hand of the saint that
he might bless the assembled monks. And the
venerable father himself at the same time moved his
hand as well as he could, so that, though he could
not speak, he might by the motion of his hand be
seen to bless the brethren.1 After which he immedi
ately expired. Then the whole church resounded
with loud lamentations of grief. When the matin
hymns were finished, the body was carried by the
monks, chanting Psalms as they went, from the church
to the little hut ; and after three days of solemn
obsequies, it was laid to rest in the burial-ground of
1 We have instances, in the Life, of Columba making the sign
of the cross in blessing (lib. ii. 15, 28, 30), and this last action
of his was in all probability an attempt to make the accustomed
movement of the hand.
DEATH OF COLUMBA. 119
the monastery. Such ' is the account given us by
Adamnan of the closing hours of a holy and noble
life. Dr. Reeves, after a careful chronological inves
tigation, decides that the death of the saint took place
"just after midnight between Saturday the eighth and
Sunday the ninth of June in the year 597." l
The greater monasteries of the Columban monks
were, with the exception of lona, all situated in
Ireland ; but some smaller foundations were to be
found scattered in the western and northern islands
of Scotland and in Pictland. We know that in the
life-time of St. Columba, Tiree had its houses ; there
was a house for a few of the brethren at Eilean-na-
Naoimh, and a monastery at Oronsay may perhaps be
attributed to the same date. Our records are so
scanty that we can say little for certain as to the
spread of the Columban houses in Scotland. Aber-
nethy and Dunkeld may have been early Columban
foundations ; but the numerous dedications of churches
in the mainland and the northern islands afford but
hazardous grounds for any sure conclusion.2 The
church of Lismore, in the long and narrow island of
that name, which lies in the mouth of Loch Linnhe,
and is now daily skirted by steamers from Oban going
1 In the Booke of Common Prayer for the Use of the Church of
Scotland, 1637, Columba is commemorated in the Kalendar at
June 9, following the example of the mediaeval Church.
- Dr. Reeves gives a list of thirty-two "Columbian founda
tions" in Scotland, and considers that the list "admits of con
siderable enlargement," but very many of those recorded are no
more than churches dedicated under the name of the saint, and
may date from a period long subsequent to St. Columba.
120 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
north, is supposed to have been founded in the life
time of Columba by a bishop, Moluag by name.1 It
was in after times the seat of the bishopric of Argyll.
Another contemporary foundation was Kingarth in
the south of the island of Bute ; here, too, the founder
was a bishop. Another missionary contemporary of
Columba was St. Donnan, who settled in the island
of Eigg. There are several Kildonans among the
Scottish churches ; and doubtless this is largely due to
his having, according to the common account, ob
tained the glory of martyrdom. It is strange with
what little opposition Christianity won its way in
Scotland ; but in this case Donnan and fifty-two of
his monks fell victims to the fury of the "queen" of
the island ; though it should be stated that, according
to another account, they suffered death at the hands
of pirates. An Irish legend, which recurs in part in
the Breviary of Aberdeen, assigns the origin of the
Church in Aberdeen to a disciple of St. Columba,
Machar by name. He was a bishop, and set out with
twelve companions to preach the gospel. He was
ordered to travel till he came to a river which exhib
ited a curve like a bishop's crosier. This sign he
found near the mouth of the river Don at Aberdeen,
where the cathedral was afterwards dedicated under
his name. Another missionary, named Maelrubha, a
monk of St. Comgall's monastery at Bangor, settled
(673) at Apurcrossan (Applecross, in Ross-shire), where
he presided for forty-nine years. The Irish accounts
represent him as dying a natural death ; but it is pro-
1 See pp. 307, 312.
MONASTIC FOUNDATIONS. 121
bably due to the Scottish story of his martyrdom by
Norwegians that dedications to him are numerous in
Scotland. It is interesting to note that, however great
the fame of Columba justly is, other independent
missionaries of monastic foundations distinct from his
had their share in the work of evangelizing Scotland.
Those who desire further information and further
conjectures will consult the pages of Reeves and of
Skene.1
1 As to Maelrubha, see more particularly Dr. Reeves' paper
in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries,. Scotland, vol.
iii., p. 258. This saint is said to have founded a church on one
of the islands in the beautiful lake in Ross-shire, Lochmaree,
which takes its name from him.
122
CHAPTER VII.
IONA : ITS PHYSICAL FEATURES — THE CONSTITUTION
OF THE COLUMBAN " FAMILY " LIFE IN THE
BROTHERHOOD AT IONA.
IONA is a small island about three and a half miles
long (in length lying north-east and south-west), and
in its widest part about a mile and a half in breadth.
It is separated from the great island of Mull l by a
deep and narrow channel, or " sound," about a mile
broad, through which the tides run with much force.
It presents to the Atlantic a bold front, with outposts
of isolated crag, or rocky islets, on the north-western,
south-western, and southern side. From the south
the heights slope down by a heather-covered surface
of great irregularity to the middle of the island, where
a comparatively flat plain (the corn-fields of the
monastery) runs from the western to the eastern shore.
Then the level again rises.
On the eastern side, close to the shore, and a little
north of the central plain, stood the monastery of St.
Columba. To the north-west of the monastery is the
1 This island is twenty-four miles long and thirty miles broad,
and as seen from lona is indistinguishable from the mainland.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF IONA. 123
highest point — a rocky hill rising to over 300 feet,1
known as Dunii.2 From this height on a clear day
(which, in the moist climate that prevails, the visitor
will find of less frequent occurrence than could be
wished), a magnificent prospect is obtained. To the
west is the wide sweep of the Atlantic ; on the east
are the red-granite cliffs of the Ross of Mull, the trap
terraces of Bourg, and, further inland, the mountain
of Benmore, rising to a height of over 3000 feet.
When the air is very clear the jagged faint blue out
line of the Coollin Hills of Skye may be distinguished
in the far north ; while the Paps of Jura may be seen in
the south rising over the near Ross of Mull. The dis
tance between these two extreme points north and south
is ninety-six miles. Many other islands are visible in
the distance, while the islet of Staffa is so close at
hand that the characteristic columnar formation of its
basalt rocks is readily distinguishable through the glass.3
In the choice of their settlements the Irish monks
seem to have looked for islands not very remote from
the mainland. Avoiding the greater islands, of which
they could not hope to secure exclusive possession,
and which would not supply the security and the
isolation which they sought, they made their selection
from among those that, without being very large, were
yet sufficiently extensive to supply wholly, or in the
1 The Ordnance Survey gives the height as 327 feet.
2 Pronounced Doon-ee, with the accent on the last syllable.
:! For further details, see the minute and accurate description
given by Skene (Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., p. 89 sq.\ See also the
charming and most vivid account of the island and its surround
ings in the Duke of Argyll's lona.
124 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
main, the tillage-ground and pasture required for the
maintenance of the community.1
Columba landed in a little bay or creek 2 in the
south of the island, but his monastery was constructed
about two miles farther north, and if not situated
exactly in the places occupied by the mediaeval build
ings and enclosures that now remain, was certainly
only a little removed from them.3
The original monastery would seem to have been of
wood, or of wattles and clay. If bee-hive cells of stone
then or afterwards occupied the ground, their material
would probably have been used in the construction
of the mediaeval buildings. No vestige of the original
structure can now be distinguished.
If we would picture to ourselves what the monas
tery at lona looked like in the days of Columba, we
must fancy, at a distance of some two or three hun
dred yards from the shore, a large enclosure, sur
rounded by a high rampart or embankment (valluni]
constructed of earth or perhaps of a mixture of earth
and stone.4 Within this rampart was a space round
1 It would appear that as the community at lona grew in
numbers, it was necessary to supplement home supplies. Even
in Columba's time, Tiree (the Ethica Insula of Adamnan) had
become, according to Reeves, " the farm-land of the mother
island." Historians of Scotland, vol. vi., p. 309.
2 Known now as Port-na-churraich (or port of the coracle),
marked by a brilliantly-coloured beach of "green serpentine,
green quartz, and the reddest felspar " (Duke of Argyll's lona,
p. 80). It has been lately asserted that jade has been found there.
3 About a quarter of a mile to the north of the present remains,
as Skene contends, see Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., p. 100.
4 The rampart or cashell (a corruption of the Latin castellum)
in some Irish monasteries was as much as fifteen feet high and nine
or ten feet broad.
MONASTERY AT IONA. 125
which the lodgings of the monks were situated, and
somewhat apart from the rest, on a little rising knoll,
was the hut (turguriolum) of the abbat. The church,
close by, with a little room abutting on it, and, as it
would seem, having a door on the outside, and also one
opening into the church, like many of our modern
vestries, was probably the largest building on the
island. There were also a refectory, and one or more
guest-chambers, and without the enclosure, a mill, a kiln,
a cow-shed, a stable for one or more horses, and a barn.
A large community on a small island, however
sparing in their diet, must have had some difficulty in
finding an adequate supply of provisions. The land on
the western part of the centre of the island was in
tillage. In the harvest-time we read of the labouring
monks reaping and bringing back loads of corn on
their backs. There were sheep on the island. The
cows may have been numerous, and their milk was
largely used.1 " Fish were abundant, and could be
obtained at all seasons. The large flounders of the
Sound of lona are still an important item in the diet
of the people. The rocks and islets all around
swarmed with seals, and their flesh seems to have
been a favourite article of food." : One of the alleged
instances of Columba's prophetical powers relate to
his foretelling the depredations made by a robber in a
1 In our own day the island, we know, could maintain more
than 200 cows and 140 calves, about 6:0 sheep and 25 horses,
beside some pigs. Duke of Argyll's lona, p. 92, edit.
2 Duke of Argyll, ut supra. The statement that seal's flesh
was " a favourite article of food " seems unsupported.
126 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
breeding-ground of seals, which belonged to the
monastery.1 The food resources of the island were
supplemented by the corn-land of the neighbouring
island of Tiree.
As might be expected, boats, large and small, of
pine and oak, or of wicker covered with skin (curachs\
propelled by oars, or with sails, figure largely in the
history. Indeed, again and again the narrative
of Adamnan, even in its unconscious romancing, has
caught and reflected with singular truth the varying
tints, the light and shadows, the life and movement, the
grace and mystery of the shifting currents of the ocean
among the western islands. Whiffs of the sea breezes
reach us with their briny odour. The authentic note
of a dweller among the impressive surroundings of
his island home may be caught in almost every page.2
It is worth observing that the familiar name by which
St. ColumbaVisland is now commonly known seems to
have arisen through an error of transcription on the
part of copyists. The name habitually given to the
place by Adamnan is the " lovan island " (loua insula],
So it appears in the earliest extant manuscript of the
Life, that of Reichenau, assigned to the beginning of the
eighth century, that is, close to the date of the death of
the author (703). In this form the word appears also
in the two next oldest manuscripts of the Life — one of
the ninth, and the other of the tenth century. Any
1 Vita, lib. i.3 c. 33.
" In the summer of 1889 I spent two delightful days upon
the island, in company with the Bishop of Argyll. We each had
a copy of Reeves' Adamnan, and felt that it could be but half
appreciated when read elsewhere.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME IONA. 127
one familiar with the difficulty of distinguishing n from
u, as written in mediaeval texts, will see at once how
the error may have crept in. But it was fostered by
some confusion, such as we find in our Scottish his
torian, John Fordun, arising probably from the stress
laid by Adamnan, in the beginning of his work, on the
fact that lona (Jonah of the Old Testament) and
Columba mean the same thing — the one being the
Hebrew, and the other the Latin, for a "dove."
In the early Irish records the name of the island
appears as la, Hya, or Hy. And this last form
(pronounced ee) is still used in reference to the island
by the Gaels of the Western Highlands.
Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, naturally enough, as
written not for the information of later ages, but
primarily for the use of his contemporary brethren of
the monastery, enters into no detailed account of the
constitution of the establishment, or of the every-day
life of the community. But much may be gathered
by the careful student from incidental allusions scat
tered in abundance through the work. Dr. Reeves has,
in a masterly way, grouped together such occasional
references, and illustrated them from the stores of his
copious erudition. In what follows I have seldom
done much more than extract the more important
features of his exhaustive discussion.
(i) It is very doubtful whether Columba composed
any systematic Rule like that of his great contemporary,
the founder of the Benedictines. But there is every
reason to believe that the brethren were bound by
the rules of Obedience, Chastity, and Poverty. The
128 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
authority of the abbat extended to all the members
of the community, whether living in Hy — the insula
primaria — or in the daughter and affiliated houses, the
heads of which all received their charge from him.
The whole community was known in Irish as the
Muintir Choluimchille, or Family of Columkille.
(2) The founder named his own successor, his cousin
Baithene; and it was not till after the year 716 that
a free election of the head appears to have been allowed.
Of the first eleven abbats in succession to Columba,
nine were certainly of the same family as Columba,
and only one was certainly not of " founder's kin."
The founder's successor was styled the Comarb, or
Heir, of Columkille. The word comarb, which is
pronounced almost as if written co-arb, is explained by
Dr. J. H. Todd (St. Patrick, p. 155) as follows:— The
word u properly signifies co-heir or inheritor; co
heir or inheritor of the same lands or territory, which
belonged to the original founder of a church or
monastery ; co-heir also of his ecclesiastical or
spiritual dignity. In the absence of territorial desig
nations, this term was employed in the Irish Church to
designate bishops or abbats who were the successors
or inheritors of the temporal and spiritual privileges
of some eminent Saint or founder. Thus the co-arb
of St. Patrick was the bishop or abbat of Armagh ;
the co-arb of Columkille was the abbat of Hy ; the
co-arb of Barre was the bishop or abbat of Cork . . .
The Bishop of Rome himself is frequently called
co-arb of Peter, and sometimes also abbat of Rome,
showing how completely the abbatial and co-arban
CONSTITUTION OF THE FAMILY. 129
authority, implying, as it did in Ireland, the rank of a
feudal lord of the soil and chieftain over the inhabitants
of the soil, swallowed up, as it were, and obscured the
accident of a co-existing episcopal or sacerdotal char
acter in the co-arb or spiritual chieftain." Sometimes
the term Ard-comarb, or chief co-arb, is met with. Thus,
while there were co-arbs of Columba at the Columban
monasteries of Derry, Durrow, and Swords, the ard-
co-arb of Columba was the Abbat of Hy.
(3) Perhaps it was, as suggested by the name Abbat
(or Father] applied to the head, that the body of the
monks (and sometimes even those who lived as serfs
or clansmen on the territory of the abbat) were styled
the family (muintir, familia). And certainly as regards
Columba himself and his followers, the relations, as
disclosed in the Life, were those of constant, affec
tionate, and watchful care on the one part, and of filial
reverence on the other. It would b2 difficult to find
anywhere a more beautiful picture of loving solicitude
and loving and reverential obedience than is revealed
by innumerable unconscious touches in the work of
the saint's biographer. Some of the monks are spoken
of as " seniors," but I cannot satisfy myself whether
they formed a distinct class, or were so termed only on
account of their age or standing in the monastery.
(4) The monastic life in our records is frequently
spoken of as a "warfare " (militia), and the term" soldier
of Christ " (miles Christi) is a term very commonly
used when it is meant to designate a monk, for which
it is indeed employed as a simple equivalent. It was
a name that would doubtless have special significance
i
130 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
and special attractions in that warlike age. The
monastery, with its surrounding cashell or rampart,
was, indeed, in more senses than one, a fortress.
(5) The life of the monk was primarily and
essentially a devotion to the warfare of Christ in the
world, but the weapons of that warfare were not carnal.
Prayer, praise, and the hearing of God's Word formed
a large part of the daily duties of the community. I
do not know that we need doubt that the services of
the " canonical hours " were duly held, with perhaps
the exception of " compline." Vespers, a night
service, and matins are very clearly referred to. The
references to the lesser "day hours " are less distinct.
The Holy Eucharist was celebrated, it would seem,
only on Sundays and festivals, and on special occasions
at the order of the abbat.
(6) Even if the spiritual advantages of physical
labour had not been fully appreciated, yet much
manual work was absolutely necessary for the main
tenance of the community. And so we have abundant
references that show us that much time was expended
in the island upon agriculture and the tending of
cattle. The monks are shown ploughing, sowing,
reaping, storing the corn, and grinding it into flour.
A mill and a kiln are mentioned. A Saxon monk
in Columba's time officiated as baker. Both cows
and sheep appear on the island, and milk seems
to have formed an important part of the diet of
the establishment. Fish, too, are caught ; and the
care and management of boats of all sizes must
have occupied the time of many of the brotherhood.
LIFE IN THE BROTHERHOOD. 137
We possess, too, a very clear and interesting reference
to the skill shown by the monks of the island in
working in metals (lib. ii., c. 30).
(7) Wednesdays and Fridays were ordinarily ob
served as fasts, but this rule did not extend to the
weeks between Easter and Pentecost. The forty days
of Lent were kept. It is an interesting feature to
observe that a relaxation of a fast was permitted to
the community in welcoming a stranger to the island.
(8) The monks slept on beds covered apparently
with straw; but the great founder, even to the day
of his death, slept on the bare rock with a stone
for his pillow. Dr. George Petrie (Round Towers,
p. 426) mentions that in the upper apartment of
the building known as St. Columba's house at Kells,
a flat stone is shown, six feet long, which is called
" St. Columba's penitential bed."
In Adamnan's Life there is no detailed description
of the dress of the monks, but they seem to have
worn an inner garment called the tunic; and
Columba's cowl (cuculld) is expressly mentioned,
but in such a connection that it seems to me to
suggest that either the ordinary monks did not at
that time wear the cowl, or that Columba wore one
of a distinctive shape or colour.1 The monks appear
to have worn sandals.
1 " One of the wicked associates (of the sons Conall) was
instigated by the devil to rush on the saint with a spear on
purpose to kill him. To prevent this, one of the brethren,
named Findlugan, put on the saint's cowl and interposed,
being ready to die for the holy man." Vita, lib. ii., c. 25.
132 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
(9) It is not unlikely that, as in so many monas
teries, there may have been at lona, in Columba's
day, a school for the instruction of youths ; but
the solitary mention of one Berchan, "a pupil
(alumnus] learning wisdom" (lib. iii., c. 22), would
seem to be too slight a foundation upon which to
build a confident conclusion.
(10) The references to the copying of books are
numerous. The saint himself is frequently described
as thus occupied. And even in the feebleness of
his old age, on the evening preceding his death,
on returning to his hut after what is described as
a fatiguing visit for the aged man to the barn, he
sat down to his task of transcribing the Psalter,
and continued till he reached the foot of the page.
In an earlier part of the history we find Baithene,
who was afterwards his successor, seeking for one
of the brethren who would collate and correct a
copy he had made of the Psalter. When the
collation had been made, it was found that the copy
was perfect but for a single omission of the letter /
(lib. i., c. 17). Beside Psalters, we have it recorded
(lib. ii., c. 8) that Columba wrote with his own hand
a " Book of Hymns for the week " (Jiymnorum liber
septimaniorum). And other transcriptions are else
where mentioned (lib. ii., c. 45). There is no hint,
so far as I have observed, of the transcriptions
being adorned with artistic decoration ; and though
I am conscious of the danger of an argument from
silence, yet I can hardly doubt that anything like
the elaborate ornament we are familiar with in some
HOSPITALITY TO STRANGERS. 133
Irish manuscripts would certainly have been noted
by the biographer.
(n) The chief subject of study was the Holy
Scriptures, as well with the abbat as with other
members of the community ; and there is an inter
esting story of how, on one occasion, some of the
difficulties of the Word of God upon which he had
meditated were supernaturally made clear to the
saint.
(12) The abbat maintained such a measure of
reserve as became his dignity. He not only slept,
but studied and wrote, in his little hut somewhat
apart from the main body of the buildings. There
he was attended by his faithful servant and com
panion, Diarmit. And sometimes we find two of
the brethren standing in attendance at the door of
the hut. Strangers arriving at the island had for
mally to request an interview (lib. i., c. 2).
(13) Strangers visiting the island were numerous,
and were received with hearty hospitality. Water
was provided for the washing of their feet, and the
guest-chamber was made ready for them. Of Bai-
thene, the saint's successor, we are told expressly
not only that he was "holy and wise, and experienced
both in teaching and writing," but that he was
affabilis et peregrinis appetibilis.
(14) Voyages of the monks to the neighbouring
islands, to the mainland, and to Ireland, are of
frequent occurrence. Timber had to be fetched
from a considerable distance. Messages from the
abbat had to be conveyed, and often excursions
134 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
were made across the great mountain ridge that
forms the Scottish water-shed into the remoter regions
of the Picts.
These notices, drawn almost exclusively from
Ad airman's Life of Columba, may suffice to give
some distinct conception of the constitution of the
monastery and of the life of the brotherhood of Hy.
The consideration of the position of bishops in the
ancient Scotic Church will be dealt with, and some
account of certain peculiarities of ritual observance
will be given, in separate chapters.
135
CHAPTER VIII.
THE HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF ADAMNAN's 'LIFE OF
ST. COLUMBA ' : THE MIRACULOUS ELEMENT.
THE work of Adamnan, to which the Christian
Church is so deeply indebted for the story of the life
of St. Columba, invaluable as it is for the unquestion
ably truthful glimpses of the ecclesiastical and social
life of a remote and obscure period of Church history,
is written in a manner that is very unsatisfactory and
often vexatious to the student who would follow in
consecutive order the narrative of the saint's career.
The Life is divided into three books, arranged on a
somewhat artificial system. The first is devoted to
recounting instances of Columba' s powers of prophecy,
the second to his miracles, and the third to super
natural appearances connected with the saint, such as
visions of angels seen by him, or the visits of angels
to him as seen by others, or the appearance of
heavenly glory around his head or on his face, etc.
And as regards time and place, the various occurrences
here detailed are hopelessly jumbled together.
The value of Adamnan's work really consists not
in what he was most desirous to tell, but in what
6 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
he incidentally lets slip or alludes to in passing. For
myself, I do not care much to investigate whether it
is really true that the saint prophesied that somebody
would knock down his ink-horn and spill his ink. I
am much more interested in the fact that he possessed
an ink-horn (lib. i., c. 19). It may have an interest for
some that the saint blessed a knife in such a way that
it would never wound either man or beast, but it is
to me more interesting to know that the monks were
so skilled in the working of metals that, in complete
faith in the miraculous property of the knife, they
melted it down and were able to apply a thin coating
of the metal to all the iron tools used in the monastery
(lib. ii., c. 30). Knowing how differently different men
are affected by the same evidence, I shall not scoff at
any one who believes that a formidable wild boar in a
wood in the island of Skye fell down dead at the
prayer of the saint ; but I am myself more interested
in learning that the wild boar was hunted in Skye
in the sixth century (lib. ii., c. 27). I do not care to dis
cuss whether it is really true that on the occasion of
St. Columba's visit to the monastery of Terryglas
in Tipperary, the locked doors of the church flew
open at the word of the saint ; but it does seem worth
noting that in those early days the doors of the
monastic churches had their fastening of lock and key
(lib. ii., c. 37). Adamnan records how Columba super-
naturally detected the rank of a disguised pilgrim
to lona. Whether it was by natural or supernatural
agency the saint discovered the truth, it is to all
students of ecclesiastical history of real consequence
ADAMNAN'S 'LIFE.' 137
to know the fact that Columba recognized his guest
as possessing, on account of his rank as a bishop,
special privileges and honours in the ritual of the
Church not allowed to presbyters (lib. i., c. 35).
I will return presently to the miraculous features of
the story, and will state frankly what I have come,
after some consideration, to think about them. But I
must here repeat that the Life of Adamnan gives
us but little help in a chronological arrangement of
the incidents related. We can gather, however, from
the narrative enough to picture to ourselves the chief
features of the saint's daily round of duty. How
he was commonly attended in his little hut, built a
little apart from the other buildings, by the faithful
Diarmit; how he occupied much of his time in
writing, part at least of which was the work of
transcribing portions of the Holy Scriptures ; how
with the monks he attended the services of vespers and
matins in the church ; and how to the church the
saint repaired when he felt moved to make special
supplications for the preservation or relief of friends
in danger or distress ; how he took an interest in the
farm-work of the monastery, and from time to time
inspected it himself; how, in his later years, as his
strength failed, he was drawn about in a little cart ;
how the welfare of the various daughter-houses was
dear to his heart ; and how very frequent were com
munications between lona and its dependencies.
These and scores of other precious pieces of infor
mation we gather from the Life.
138 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
There can be no question that even in his lifetime
Columba was almost universally looked on with
profound respect and veneration. On his proposing,
for example, to visit St. Ciaran's monastery of Clon-
macnois, the whole body of the monks of that
establishment, both those engaged in the fields and
those occupied in duties within their walls, assembled
in the enclosure and went out, headed by the abbat,
to meet the saint, " as if he had been the angel of the
Lord." When Columba came within sight they bowed
themselves with their faces to the ground, and when
they met him they saluted him with kisses of
reverential affection. Hymns and praises were then
sung as they walked in procession towards the church.
And to prevent the saint being inconvenienced by the
pressure of the crowd, he was protected by being
placed tinder a kind of wooden canopy borne by four
men walking beside him (lib. i., c. 3).
Nor can there be a doubt that even in his lifetime
Columba was very generally regarded as possessing
the power to work miracles, or by his prayers to obtain
the supernatural aid of Heaven. I am also satisfied
— and this is a most important fact, if it be established
— that Columba was himself convinced that he was
granted, at least in some measure, the powers that
were attributed to him. And further, I am satisfied
that his biographer A dam nan, who wrote the Life,
perhaps within a hundred years of the deatli of his
hero, was not himself a deliberate inventor of fictions.
And yet, after having read all that is alleged about
the antecedent probability of miracles being vouch-
EVIDENCE AS TO MIRACLES. 139
safed in circumstances like those of St. Columba, I
have to confess that I am not satisfied that we have
evidence before us as to the miracles of a kind that
ought to carry our judgment to a verdict of "proven."
Now, though I acquit Adamnan himself of inventing
miracles, I am unable to acquit of blame " some person
or persons unknown," who, either by gross exaggeration
of facts in some instances, or in others by deliberately
concocting what passed for facts, have largely con
tributed to the material of this biography. I am
afraid I must say that this remark applies to the great
majority of the prodigies with which the book abounds.
A few can be accounted for by a mere unconscious
spirit of imaginative amplification exerted to do honour
to a holy man. Stories went from mouth to mouth,
and grew as they travelled. When listeners are found
eager to believe, story-tellers will not be over-scrupu
lous. And to have been sceptical would in those
days have been regarded as irreverence. Think, again,
how a child with open eyes of wonder, and with no
intention to deceive, gives an account absurdly in
accurate of something strange or unusual that has
happened. His own fancies and fears become part
of the history; and, without moral blame, the facts
assume the shape and colour of the marvellous.
A few of the alleged miracles of St. Columba —
though I have to admit they are very few — may be
accounted for on natural principles, or as being mere
coincidences. The most obstinate unbeliever need
feel no interest in denying that Columba's mother had
a dream before the child was born about an old man
146 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
who brought her a beautiful cloak, which was after
wards carried away by the wind, and who comforted
her by telling her that her son would be counted as
one of God's prophets, and would bring innumerable
souls to the heavenly country.1 And it may very
well have actually happened that King Oswald dreamed
that Columba came to him and promised him victory
the day before the defeat of his enemy. Nor am I
disposed to deny that some " wicked and blood-stained
men," who sang in Irish the songs in Columba's praise,
had a marvellous escape from flame and sword, while
on the same occasion a few who had regarded these
songs of little value perished.2 But by far the larger
number of the "miracles" are, in my opinion, to be
regarded as valueless, with no residuum, or only the
smallest residuum, of fact as a basis. Adamnan, when
he began his Life, was naturally on the look-out for
miracles, and they came in in abundance. They
reach us generally third or fourth hand ; and certainly,
honest as he was, Adamnan clearly shows that he had
no disposition to sift them thoroughly. It is very
interesting to note that the one marvel which he him
self vouches for (the occurrence, some fourteen years
before the time of his writing, of copious rain after a
long and unusual drought, which he attributes to their
shaking three times in the air a tunic that had been
worn by the saint, and the reading aloud of some of
the books written by the saint's hand) need not neces-
1 lib. iii., c. 2.
2 It is plain from the conclusion of the story that these carmina
were used as charms in cases of danger.
POPULAR BELIEFS. 141
sarily be accounted for by a suspension of the ordinary
laws of nature (lib. ii., c. 45). It is also of much interest
to observe that Adamnan makes boast that the stories
which popular fame had made current could not stand
comparison with the wonders which he had to relate.
It is to no purpose that he tells us that in some cases
he followed previous writers. These may have been
more credulous than himself, nay, they may have been
dishonest, as he certainly was not. And we know
nothing of the capacity or intellectual qualifications
of the old men who retailed to him many of his
stories (Prcefationes).
I have already spoken of how important it is to
the investigator to be familiar with a wide range of
hagiological literature. Legendary types have a singu
lar tendency to recur. And with regard to the lives
of Scotic saints, when reading the bardic stories we
find ourselves in an atmosphere quite akin. It was
universally felt that there was little worth relating which
was not a marvel.
As illustrating the popular beliefs of his time, the
stories related by Adamnan, however incredible, are
full of interest ; and much more is to be learned from
them than many modern writers, in their contemptuous
impatience, have been ready to acknowledge. The
stories reflect the religious notions current in the
writer's day, and so supply us with a most precious
source of information as to a period of the history of
religious thought in this country otherwise singularly
obscure. Some illustrations of this truth will be
offered in another chapter. It is not, I think, less
142 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
interesting to know what men believed and what they
thought, than what kind of dress they wore, what
kind of houses they lived in, what weapons they
carried, and what food they ate.
Again, that in many instances unfavourable winds
shifted round to a favourable point after the prayer of
the saint, will, in our own day, be differently regarded
by pious men — that is, either as coincidences or as
answers to prayer in a region of physical phenomena
where such answers are still vouchsafed. Of a similar
kind is the account of the fall of rain after the
unusual drought. This last is, I think, a well-
authenticated story. The events happened only
fourteen years before Adamnan wrote, and he himself
seems to have been present on the occasion. The
months of March and April had been without rain,
and the monks feared greatly for their crops. After
consultation they resolved to go out among the corn
fields and wave three times in the air the white tunic
of the saint, and to read aloud some books which the
saint had written with his own hand. This was done,
when suddenly the sky became overcast, and pre
sently the rain fell in copious abundance. One may
accept the truth of the narrative, and yet, I hope, may
not be suspected of irreverence or culpable scepticism
in remarking that post hoc is sometimes confounded
with propter hoc.
Cases of recovery from sickness upon the prayer of
the saint are not matters that require special comment.
But I have to confess, with respect to many of the
alleged miracles, I should like to cross-examine the
CELTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 143
witnesses before accepting the testimony that has
reached us second or third hand.
There is a story of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which
relates that on some occasion when he was asked, did
he believe in ghosts, he replied, " I have seen too
many of them to believe in them." And, similarly,
how much one must discount from the stories of the
Celtic population of Ireland and the Western High
lands of Scotland can only be learned by living for
some considerable time among these people. For
myself, I have lived too long among ghosts, banshees,
clurichauns, merrows, and fairies, the interest being
occasionally diversified by miraculous cures at holy
wells, or miraculous appearances, like that of "our
Lady of Knock," to estimate testimonies to super
natural occurrences with the seriousness and deliberate
consideration with which those unfamiliar with such
experiences may be disposed to regard them. The
disposition to bring things to the test, to be thorough,
to get at the bottom of a wonderful story, was
certainly not more developed in the sixth century
than it is in the nineteenth. The testimonies to
the supernatural powers associated with witchcraft in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are immeasur
ably weightier than those for any miracle in the entire
hagiology of Scotland or Ireland.
144
CHAPTER IX.
ST. ADAMNAN : IONA IN THE EIGHTH AND NINTH
CENTURIES.
IT would not serve the purpose I have in view to
trouble my readers with a list of the succession of the
abbats of lona. The only name of outstanding
eminence is that of the ninth in order from Columba,
his biographer, Adamnan, who filled the office of
abbat from 679 till his death in 704, when he had
reached seventy-seven years of age. On his father's
side Adamnan was of the family of Columba, like
whom, he appears to have been a native of Donegal.
He attained a high repute for piety and for learning ;
and his extant writings show that the repute was not
ill-founded.
The Northumbrian prince, Aldfrid, who had been
in exile, probably in lona, was among his friends,
and on at least two occasions he visited him at his court
at Bamborough. On the first occasion his visit was
prompted by the desire to obtain the liberation of
some Irish captives ; and he appeared before Aldfrid
as the commissioned ambassador of the Irish people.
He was successful in his mission, and returned to
ADAMNAN'S VISIT TO ALDFRID. 145
Ireland with sixty of his fellow-countrymen. On the
occasion of his second visit to Aldfrid, he presented
to the king, as it would seem, a copy of his book,
Concerning the Holy Places, of which we shall
presently speak. On this occasion, too, he visited,
among other churches, that of Jarrow, where the
abbat Ceolfrid discussed with him the vexed
questions of the Tonsure and Easter, and by his
arguments and winning persuasiveness converted him
to the Roman view. On his return to lona, Adamnan
sought to win over the brotherhood to his new way
of thinking, but in vain. In Ireland he was, by
arguments urged with gentle moderation, more
successful, though there too the houses of the
Columban foundation resisted his efforts. In 697 he
attended a synod, or rather mixed council of princes
and ecclesiastics, held at Birr, in Ireland ; and at his
instance a law, afterwards known as the " Law of
. Adamnan," was enacted, which for the first time
exempted the women of Ireland from the obligation
of bearing arms and going to battle. He also took
part in another Irish synod at Tara, which was
attended by forty-seven chiefs and thirty-nine
ecclesiastics ; and in Ireland he spent his last Easter,
keeping it according to the Roman computation.
He returned to lona, and again sought to persuade
the monks to adopt his views on the controverted
points ; but he was not destined in his lifetime to see
the fruit of his labours in this respect. It was not
till twelve years after his death that lona adopted the
Roman ways.
K
146 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
In 710, as we learn from Bede, Naiion (or Nectan),
king of the Picts, conformed to the Roman Easter.
Ceolfrid, already mentioned as having effected the
change in Adamnan's opinions, had sent to Naiton,
in response to inquiries, a wisely-written exposition of
the question, and to him may be attributed the
adoption of the Roman Easter by the Pictish nation.
But the Columban monasteries in Pictland still
adhered to their old ways, even after the Mother
House of lona had abandoned them; and, in 717,
Naiton took on him to exhibit the fervency of his
orthodoxy by driving west across the mountains of
Drumalban the recalcitrant Columban monks. The
battle was, however, now practically won ; and before
many years the Easter of the old Irish cycle, which
had been abandoned long before (634) in the south of
Ireland, was heard of no more. There can be no
doubt that the high reputation of Adamnan for
learning contributed largely to bring about this
result. When one so wise and so good had changed
his belief and practices, men felt there must be some
thing in the contention of their opponents. Yet the
final surrender of the monks of lona must be
attributed to the wise instructions of an aged
Northumbrian priest named Egbert, who had for
many years lived as a monk in Ireland, and had
obtained there a singular repute for piety and ascetic
severity. He was, in his old age, very desirous to
make a pilgrimage to Rome, but was warned by the
dream of a brother-monk that his duty was to visit
the brethren at lona " because their ploughs did not
TRANSFORMATION OF NAMES. 147
go straight." In 716 he removed to lona, where
he was held in great veneration. He spent the last
thirteen years of his life there, and died, after cele
brating mass, on Easter-day in the year 729. And
after that date, at all events, if not a few years earlier,
the old Celtic computation of Easter was abandoned
for ever.1
Celtic names often underwent strange transfor
mations; but few of them exhibit more numerous
variations of shape than that of Adamnan. The word
(which in signification is a diminutive of Adam, and
sometimes appears as Adaman) passed, through the
form Ownan, into Eunan, the name under which the
cathedral church of the Irish diocese of Raphoe was
dedicated. While in Scotland the saint's name can
be traced, according to Dr. Reeves, under such
disguises as Ainan, Arnty, Eonan, Eunan, Teunan,
Thewnan, Skeulan, and, most odd of all, Arnold.2
In the Scottish dedications of churches and the names
of wells, etc., we have indications that he was venerated
not only in Cantire and the island of Sanda (Incha-
wyn) off its coast, but in Aberdeenshire at Aboyn,
and Furvie (which is specially connected with his name
in the Aberdeen Breviary] ; in Banff at Forglen ; in
Perthshire at Campsie; in Forfarshire at Tannadice; in
West Lothian at Dalmeny ; and in the island of Inch-
keith in the Forth, which we are now familiar with for
1 .See Bede, Eccles. Hist., lib. v., c. 21.
" Reeves, article "Adamnan" in Smith and Wace's Diet, of
Christ. Blag., and Historians of Scotland, vol. vi., p. elxviii ;
Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, p. 266.
I4# THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
its lighthouse and its fortifications, lately armed with
heavy guns for the protection of Edinburgh. You
will observe that the large majority of these dedica
tions were in the dominion of the Picts, and I cannot
help offering the conjecture that the concurrence of
Adamnan's changed views with those adopted by the
zealous Pictish monarch may have stimulated the
special veneration felt for him in that kingdom.
The most important of the writings of Adamnan is
undoubtedly the Life of St. Columba, which has been
discussed ; but something should be said here of his
other principal work, entitled Concerning the Holy
Places}- We learn from Bede (lib. v., c. 15) that Arculf,
a bishop, and a Gaul by nationality, was wrecked on
the coast of Britain on his return voyage from a
pilgrimage to Palestine and the East. It is not
difficult to understand how, if he were sailing to some
port on the western or northern coast of France, he
might by tempests have been blown far north, and on
landing have come within reach of the fame of Adam-
nan. After many unrecorded adventures he reached
lona, and from his lips Adamnan took down on
waxen tablets Arculf s account of the most interesting
places visited by him, including, besides Jerusalem,
Alexandria and Constantinople. He had also seen
something of Crete and of Sicily on his return
journey. His narrative, as we see from the work
itself, was drawn from him in large measure by the
intelligent questions of his host. It was afterwards
1 This work is printed in the Acta On/. Benedict, sec. iii.,
pars ii.
ARCULF'S TOUR IN PALESTINE. 149
transferred by Adamnan, in an abbreviated form, from
the tablets to parchment. It forms, in truth, a really
valuable account of the places in the Holy Land
visited by the pilgrims of that day, and contains
several ground-plans (sketched by Arculf) of the
churches built upon the sacred sites. It was made the
foundation of Bede's work on the same subject. We
may note in passing that in the Galilean part of his
tour Arculf placed himself under the guidance of a
hermit, Peter by name, a Burgundian by birth, who
hurried him from place to place with a speed which
he little relished. The incident has a life-like air
of truthfulness.
Unfortunately, the work contains, in its pertinent
narration, scarcely any information that would throw
even a side-light upon the usages of the Scottish
Church. One point, however, I have noted with
much interest. Adamnan observes that the initial
letter of Tabor (the mountain) is the Greek Theta
[0], indicating that it should be pronounced " with an
aspiration," and that the final o is long, being Omega
[<u]. Now, through the chink of this fact of the
interest of Adamnan in such a little question, we may
get a passing glimpse of the considerable measure of
culture which existed in the Scottish monasteries.
When men are interested in questions of philology
and pronunciation, it indicates that they have pro
gressed a considerable way in intellectual pursuits.
The conclusion of the work contains a story
reported by Arculf of a warrior in the East, who,
going out to the wars, " commended himself and his
150 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
horse" to the care of St. George, and was kept in
safety in many fierce battles. It was not unnatural
for Arculf to take a special interest in St. George,
as that hero had been long venerated in France.
But we may conjecture that Adamnan's book may
have helped largely to spread his fame among the
warlike people of Britain.
Among other subjects of inquiry, Adamnan desired
to know whether, in the desert of St. John Baptist,
Arculf had seen any locusts or wild honey. Small
locusts, the traveller replied, he had seen ; but he
gives it as his opinion that the " wood-honey " (inel
silvestre) was the sweet leaves of certain trees which
he had tasted.
Adamnan also seems taken with the view of Arculf,
that our Lord in the phrase, " Ye are the salt of the
earth,' meant to refer to salt dug out of the earth
as distinguished from sea-salt. The traveller had
seen and tasted some rock-salt in Sicily, and declared
it to be the saltest of salts (sal sahissimuni). Now,
foreign as both these interpretations are to those
familiar only with our English Bibles, and baseless
as the latter seems to be, the view that the honey,
which formed part of the food of the Baptist, was
some sweet exudation on the leaves of trees, has
been maintained by very many scholars of modern
times.1 My object, however, in noticing these things
is to show that they, give us a glimpse of the real
interest taken by Adamnan in getting at what he
1 Meyer (on Matt. iii. 4) cites Suidas, Salmasius, Reland,
Michaelis, Kuinoel, Fritzche, Bleek, and Volkmar.
CHARACTER OF ADAMNAN S WORK. 151
thought the true sense of the Scripture narrative.
It is easy to picture the eagerness with which, in
the remote little island in the western sea, he
questioned the traveller from the distant regions of
the East.
Again, before transcribing his guest's narrative, he
made himself acquainted, he tells us, with other
accounts of the Holy Land, which fact gives us
another glimpse of the learning of lona.
The treatise, Concerning the Holy Places, is written
in a more careful and studied style than the Life
of St. Columba,3&& is seldom disfigured by barbarisms
and obscurities such as are not infrequent in the
latter work. The book concludes with the request,
so common in these old writings, that the reader would
pray for Arculf, who supplied the facts, and for the
"wretched sinner" who wrote them down.
Everything we know of Adamnan makes us dis
posed to willingly accept the judgment of Bede,
that he was " a good and wise man, and pre
eminently learned in the Holy Scriptures." We
have only to add that the error which made Adam-
nan, under the name Eunan, bishop of Raphoe, recurs
in the Kalendar of the Scottish Prayer-Book of 1637,
where, at September 25th, we find "Adaman B."
After the death of Adamnan, the learned Skene
{Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., p. 289) infers, from a compari
son of lists of abbats of lona, that each of the two rival
parties — the Celtic and the Roman — elected their
own abbat, and that this schism was continued for
152 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
many years. The different lists are certainly per
plexing, but in default of more light, I cannot but
think the inference is weightier than the evidence
will bear. It seems to me quite inconceivable that
so grave a state of things as the existence of a
prolonged schism would not have been expressly
referred to.
The later annals of lona during the period with
which we are concerned are for the most part only
brief jottings ; but we may notice a few events of
importance and interest. Their island home, exposed
to the wild sweep of the Atlantic, must have sub
jected the brotherhood of lona to frequent perils
of the deep. The monastery of Apurcrossan (now
Applecross, in Ross-shire) had, in 737, lost its abbat,
with twenty-two others, out at sea, and twelve years
after (749) the monastic family of lona met a similar
disaster. The language of the Irish annalist, Tig-
hernac, would suggest that it was attended with even
greater loss. Under the year 749 he notes, " A great
storm. The family of lona drowned." l
In 778, Niall Frassach, who had been king of all
Ireland for seven years, and had retired to the
monastery of lona, died there apparently after eight
years' residence among the brethren. Four years
afterwards, another Irish monarch, Artgaile, king of
Connaught, went on his pilgrimage to lona, and
died there after eight years' residence.
1 Skene's Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, p. 76. Perhaps
demersi may mean "buried" in the ruins of their destroyed
houses.
RAVAGES OF THE DANES. 153
During the course of the eighth century the
remains of St. Columba were disinterred, enshrined,
and removed to Ireland, where they were deposited
in the church of Saul Patrick, in the county of Down.
The cause of this translation of the relics is generally,
and probably rightly, attributed to the terror which
the Danish piratical fleets were spreading every
where along the coasts. We know from the Saxon
Chronicle, that, in 793, the sacred island of
Lindisfarne was ravaged by the heathen Danes ;
and it may well have been that the dread of a similar
calamity prompted the removal, to a place of greater
safety, of the most precious treasure of lona, the
body of the holy founder. However this may be,
in 802 the blow fell, and the monastery of lona
was pillaged and burned. Four years later a second
attack was made upon the island, and sixty-eight
of the brethren fell by the sword. The intense love
of the brotherhood for their home is affectingly
manifested by their persistent efforts to re-establish
their position the moment the immediate danger
was removed. In 818, the abbat Diarmait returned
to the island with the shrine of Columba. And
at this time, as Skene (Celtic Scotland^ vol. ii.,
p. 298) gives good reason for believing, the monastic
buildings were constructed of stone, in a situation
better suited for defence. But once more a terrible
and murderous onslaught on the brotherhood was
made by the Danish hordes in 825, in the account
of which the monk Blaithmac, the son of an Irish
prince, appears prominently, as having been slaugh-
154 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
tered before the altar where he was celebrating mass.
The desire to secure the precious metals that formed
the shrine of Columba, which they believed was*
hidden in the island, was on this occasion, as we
are expressly told, one of the objects of the Danish
attack. Some of the monks saved themselves by
flight. After having seen the companions who re
mained with him put to death before his eyes,
Blaithmac was asked to reveal the place where the
holy relics were deposited in concealment. He
replied that he did not know, and that if he knew
he would not tell, whereupon he was instantly hewn
in pieces. " It was fitting that lona, the sacred
nursery of so many doctors and confessors, should
also have its martyrs in the saints of God." 1 Some
of the particulars just related are derived from a
Latin Life of Blaithmac^ written in one hundred
and seventy-two hexameter verses by his contempo
rary, the erudite Walafrid Strabo, who, as a monk of
St. Gall, and afterwards abbat of Reichenau, lived
in a region where contact with visitors from Irish
monasteries was frequent.
We now approach an event of singular importance
in the secular as well as the religious history of the
country — the union of the Scottish and Pictish king
doms under the rule of one monarch, Kenneth Mac-
Alpin, who transferred the primacy from lona to
Dunkeld. Whether lona had preserved its privileges
in the kingdom of the Picts after the expulsion of
the Columban monks is doubtful. " Among the
1 Bishop Healy's Insnla Sanctorwi et Doctomm, p. 347.
PRIMACY TRANSFERRED TO DUNKELP. 155
Picts," says Dr. Grub (Ecd. Hist, of Scotland,
vol. i., p. 142), "the Church appears to have been
reduced to vassalage by the temporal power. During
the contests of the t\vo nations, the difficulty must
have been experienced, which is always felt when
an inhabitant of one state exercises ecclesiastical
jurisdiction over the inhabitants of another." But
now this difficulty ceased, and Kenneth, having built
a new church at Dunkeld, removed to it some of
the relics of St. Columba (850); and henceforth
the primatial authority was claimed for Dunkeld,
though the claim may not. have been readily or at
once acknowledged by all the Columban monks in
the west of Scotland. Tuathal, the abbat of Dunkeld,
is also styled "first bishop" (primus episcopus) of
Fortrerm — the name given to the kingdom of the
Southern Picts.1 As abbat of Dunkeld, a church
dedicated to St. Columba, and possessing some of
his relics, he would claim obedience from the
Columban monasteries of Scotland, and as bishop
of Fortrenn, he was head of the Pictish Church.2
I have learned, after a long acquaintance with his
admirable work, to have a profound respect for the
judgment of Dr. Grub, who weighs his evidence
with all the impartiality of a trained lawyer on the
judicial bench ; but on the question of the sense
of the phrase, "primus Episcopus Fortren," in the
Annals of Ulster at 865, I am inclined to believe
Skene is right in saying that it " means first in
1 Annals of Ulster, A.D. 865.
2 Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., p. 3o8.
156 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
time and not in dignity" (Celtic Scotland, vol. ii.,
p. 308). By this we should understand that he was
the first bishop having episcopal jurisdiction. Bishops,
as we shall see (chap, xiv.), were numerous, but hitherto
they had, by an unusual arrangement, been subject,
as members of the monastic communities, to the
authority of the abbats.
CHAPTER X.
INFLUENCE OF IONA IN THE SOUTH : ST. CUTHBERT
IN LOTHIAN.
IT is not my intention to narrate at any length the
wonderful story of the Irish mission in England. It
has been often told ; and close as its connection is
with the monastic foundation of Columba at lona, it
would open a field too wide for brief treatment,
and, in part, too remote from the religious history
of Scotland. Some notice, however, must be taken
of the events connected with the memorable time
when the streams of Celtic and Latin Christianity first
met in the north.
It must be learned elsewhere how the half-
Christianized tribes of Angles in the north-east of
England and the adjoining south-east of Scotland had
been overwhelmed by the power of the pagan Penda,
and how the arms of Oswald had restored (634) the
kingdom to the hands of a Christian. Oswald, on the
death of his father, Ethelfrid (616), had fled with his
brother and sought refuge either in Ireland or, as seems
for many reasons very much more probable, among
the Irish Christians of British Dalriada. During his
158 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
exile he had been baptized (Adamnan, Vita S.
Columbcz, lib. i., c. i). And, if we may rationalize, it
was the memory of the wonders he had heard about
their saintly patron from the Columban monks in lona
which suggested to him on his return to England the
dream which he dreamed the day before his successful
engagement with the forces of Cadwalla. Columba
seemed to approach, bright with angelic glory and of
a stature so great that he seemed to touch the clouds.
Then the saint in the dream uttered the words, "Be
strong and of a good courage ; behold, I will be with
thee ; " and added the command that he should not
delay to attack the enemy, for victory would be his.
After his triumph and settlement in his kingdom of
Bernicia, Oswald sent a message to lona, beseeching
the brethren to send him a bishop as a missionary to
help in bringing back his people to the Christian
faith. His petition was answered. A bishop (to
whom the late writer, Hector Boece, gives the name
Gorman) was sent from lona. But this man, who is
described by Bede (Eccles. Hist., lib. iii., c. 5) as of
too austere a temperament, met with no success, and
soon returned back to lona.
With the aid of Bede (Eccles. Hist., lib. iii., c. 5) we
can picture to ourselves the scene on the return to lona
of the unsuccessful missionary. The " seniors " of the
island monastery are summoned together ; and Gorman
declared to them that no progress could be made
among men so intractable, so stubborn and barbarous
as the Angles. Then there was much discussion
among the assembled brethren as to what was to be
AlDAN DESPATCHED TO NORTHUM15RIA. 159
done, for they were desirous to grant the blessing
which had been sought for the people who still sat in
darkness. Then a monk named Aidan, who was
present in the council, addressing the returned
missionary, who must have been giving some details of
his mode of working, said, " It seems to me, brother,
that you were more harsh with your unlearned
hearers than was reasonable, and did not first, as the
Apostle has taught us, offer them the milk of less
solid doctrine, until, gradually nourished with the
Word of God, they would have been able to accept a
more advanced teaching and stricter rule of life."
When they heard these words, the eyes of all who
sat in the council were turned upon Aidan, and after a
careful and full discussion of what had been said, they
resolved to send Aidan himself to supply the place of
Gorman. And so, when they had ordained him bishop,
they despatched him (635) to Northumbria. His
wisdom and loving moderation fully justified their
choice. Under Aidan Christianity made rapid progress
in the dominions of Oswald, which extended northward
as far as the Forth.
The episcopal see of Aidan was fixed by the
king in the island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of
Northumberland. Though unlike lona in being
accessible from the shore at low water, it resembles
the Scottish "Holy Island"1 in extent, being about
two miles and three-quarters in length, and in
breadth about a mile and a half. Like lona, too, it
1 See Lindisfarne or Holy Island, by the Rev. W. W. F.
Keeling.
l6o THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
contains no vestige of the original Celtic church
and monastery ; and, like lona, the ecclesiastical ruins
now to be seen on the island are of the mediaeval
period. This sacred spot was the seat of sixteen
bishops in succession, and a centre of missionary
labour scarcely, if at all, inferior to the mother house
itself. That it was within easy reach of the fortress
of Bamborough, a principal residence of the king,
must have been serviceable in maintaining and
increasing the influence of its spiritual chiefs.
It was under the rule of Aidan that the most
famous monastery in the south of Scotland, Melrose,
had its origin at a spot some two miles lower down
the Tweed than the site of the ruins of the
noble Cistercian abbey which now attract the
attention of the visitor. The place occupied by the
original monastery is still known as Old Melrose, and
is situated on the right bank, where the river's course
makes a horse-shoe curve nearly surrounding the
enclosure of the monastery.1 Of this monastery the
first abbat was Eata. He had been one of twelve
native Northumbrian boys whom St. Aidan had taken
"to be instructed in Christ."2 He afterwards appeared
as the first bishop of Hexham, and the fifth of Lindis-
farne. It was during Eata's rule as abbat of Melrose
— the "Mailros" of Bede — that, in 651, the young
shepherd Cuthbert, who tended his flocks upon the
1 Bede (Eccles Hist., lib. v., c. 12) says the monastery was
almost surrounded by the winding of the river Tweed.
2 Another of these twelve boys was the famous St. Chad
(Ceadda), bishop of Lichtield.
CUTHP.ERT SENT TO UNDISFARNE. l6l
banks of the Leader Water (a tributary of the Tweed,
which flows from the southern slope of the Lammermuir
Hills and enters the larger river near Melrose),
presented himself for admission at the monastery.
And it was from Melrose, after a few years, that he
accompanied his abbat to found the monastery at
Ripon. Differences with their princely patron at
Ripon on the subject of the Easter computation
drove back (66 1) these followers of the Celtic prac
tice to Melrose. In 664 Eata removed Cuthbert to
Lindisfarne, where he was appointed prior or provost.1
Here his connection with Scotland ceases ; and it is
not my province to relate the story of his great work
and wonderful life in England. It is of interest, how
ever, to gather together all that we can learn of him
during his stay in the country that forms our present
Scotland.
Our great authority is Bede, who deals with the
life of Cuthbert, not only in his best-known work, the
Ecclesiastical History ', but also in a separate biography
of the saint written in lucid and beautiful prose, as
well as in a metrical biography of less value, though
not without its merits. Bede had, however, made use
of, and, in part, incorporated in his own work, an
earlier and much shorter Life by an unnamed
monk of Lindisfarne, which should certainly be
studied together with Bede's work, as occasionally
we find in it some graphic touch or some little piece
1 The word " praepositus " is the word habitually used in
the documents of Celtic monasticism for the officer who, under the
abbat, administered the affairs of each religions house.
I 62 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
of information which Bede expunged or glossed, to
our loss.1
Not a word is said by Bede or the anonymous
author about the birth or parentage of Cuthbert.
Perhaps the reason is that nothing was known about
it ; and I can only express my wonder that Skene is
to be found (Celtic Scotland^ vol. ii., p. 205) in any
measure coquetting with the Irish story which makes
him born, out of wedlock, of a mother who was an Irish
king's daughter. The whole narrative, crammed full of
absurdities, has for its source a fourteenth-century
manuscript now preserved in the Diocesan Library at
York.'-'
I do not know that we can even claim, with any
confidence, the great saint as a native of North
Britain, though it appears that his early years 'were
passed at no very great distance from Melrose ; as we
are told by Bede, in recounting a miracle where the
saint saved a house from fire by his prayers, that he
frequently visited (apparently from Melrose) a
good woman who brought him up as a child, and
whom he therefore used to style "mother."
The first thing we learn about Cuthbert is that
1 This Life, "by a contemporary monk of Lindisfarne," is
printed by the Bollandists (Ada Sanctorum, Martii torn, iii., p.
117), and by Stevenson, Redi? Opp. Minora, p. 259.
• Skene suspects that this early part of Bede's narrative,
dealing with the parentage of the saint, was "expunged at the
instance of the critics to whom he had submitted his manu
script." This part of the story of the Irish manuscript has, it
seems to me, a strong resemblance to the legend about the birth
of St. Kentigern, and may have been suggested by it to the Irish
hagiologist.
CUTHBERT' s YOUTH. 163
he was fond of, and foremost in, all manner of noisy
boyish games, and delighted in the companionship of
his fellows. He was active and quick-witted ; and
in leaping, running, and wrestling was proud to be
able to beat, not only all boys of his age, but even
some of his seniors.
The anonymous author, with a greater frankness
of detail than Bede, describes how one day, when
Cuthbert was eight years of age, the boys indulged
themselves (some of them stark naked) in the sport of
standing on their heads with their legs wide apart in
the air. This a child of three years old, who was
possessed of the gift of prophecy, considered an
unbecoming attitude for a future bishop, and rebuked
the saint accordingly, who did not take well the
comments of his three-year-old mentor. It is
amusing to find Bede refining on this story in his prose
life, while in his verses, as was natural, the humorous
or unbecoming element is entirely suppressed. Still
further, in the First Lesson for St. Cuthbert's Day in
the Aberdeen Breviary, we read the very tame
account — " Cuthbert was a youth of good disposition,
and one day, when he was playing with boys, a
certain boy of about three years old came to him and
said, with tears, " O most holy Bishop Cuthbert, it
does not become thee, whom the Lord has destined
to be the ruler of those older than yourself, to play
among boys." This is a specimen of the process
of rehandling, as to which the student must be always
on the alert. To most of us, I suppose, the child's
prophecy is of much less interest than the picture
164 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
presented of the merry, light-hearted, vigorous, and
athletic boy, in whom the prophecy was fulfilled. He
who afterwards underwent so many hardships and
toils had then his early physical training.
The next incident in the anonymous Life is
how a swelling in Cuthbert's knee (which might
very easily occur in the life of this frolicsome boy)
was cured by an application of a mixture of flour
and milk, cooked together and put on hott a
recipe recommended to him as he lay in the sun
outside the house by a man in white robes who
came riding by on a splendidly-caparisoned horse.
" After a few days," says the biographer, " he was
perfectly cured," and Cuthbert perceived that his
adviser on horseback was an angel.1 This story is
reproduced faithfully enough by Bede in his more
elegant style, except that he adds the very important
statement that Cuthbert tells his angelic visitor that
" the skill of none of the doctors " had been able to
do him good. Perhaps the doctors had never tried a
poultice of hot milk and flour.2
Perhaps it was in his early youth that Cuthbert
1 Canon Browne ( Venerable Bede in the Fathers for English
Readers] observes : "Curiously enough, Becle's only doubt in
the matter is whether all readers will believe that an angel rode
on horseback. To satisfy the scruples of such, he refers them to
the passage in the Maccabees, where angels came on horseback
to the aid of Judas Maccabeus."
- Should any one care for the recipe in Latin hexameters,
here it is —
Sic fatus, " Similae nitidam cum lacte farinam
Olla coquat pariter ferventis in igne culinae,
Ilacque istum calida sanandus inunge tumorem."
CUTHBERT AS A SOLDIER. 165
served as a soldier — a fact testified to by the anony
mous biographer, but, strangely enough, not recorded
by Bede. The notice is very brief ; the admiration of
the anonymous monk is roused by the statement that
Cuthbert, living in camp, with the enemy in front,
and subsisting on scanty rations, still throve and
flourished, like Daniel and the Three Holy Children
on their poor fare. The place which this story
occupies in the secular life of Cuthbert, and, indeed,
its very terms, preclude the notion that the anonymous
biographer understood the story in any other than
a literal sense.1
From the time when his knee was cured, we are
told the youth devoted himself much to prayer, seek
ing more particularly for angelic aid. His prayers
were on one occasion effectively made on behalf of
some ships in danger at the mouth of the river Tine
(Tinus). Now, what river was this? Was it the
great river Tyne that divides Northumberland from
Durham, or the little river of the same name in East
Lothian that enters the sea a fe\v miles north of the
town of Dunbar? It seems to me that there is little
or no evidence to determine which is meant. The
Bollandists give judgment in favour of the Scottish
stream ; and Scotchmen will probably prefer to regard
it as a Scottish miracle. But it is certain, if we credit
the anonymous Life, that Cuthbert, during his secular
life, had made journeys south of Durham.
There is a more general agreement that the river
Leader (Leder) of the anonymous Life, by which he
1 See Stevenson's Opp. Hist. Min. Vcn. Da/if, p. 124.
1 66 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
was tending the herds of some richer man, when he
saw by night the vision of St. Aidan's soul being
carried to heaven " in a ball of fire " by the angels, is
the stream already referred to as a tributary of the
Tweed.1 It was this wonderful sight which, according
to Bede, determined Cuthbert to abandon the secular
life, and devote himself to the monastery.
We are told that Cuthbert was specially drawn to
choose Melrose for his place of profession by the high
repute of the provost of the house, Boisil by name,
" a monk and priest of exalted virtues." This, I
think, tends to confirm the belief that the place of his
labour as a herd was not very remote from Melrose.
Cuthbert rode to the monastery spear in hand,2 as
was not unnatural for a traveller in those wild times.
Boisil, who was standing outside the door of the
monastery as he approached, received him kindly ;
and Eata, the abbat, who had been absent, arriving
after a few days, on the provost's recommendation
admitted Cuthbert to the "family," or brotherhood
of monks.
Cuthbert threw himself eagerly into the duties of the
monastic life at Melrose. " In reading and praying,
working and watching," he seemed to surpass his
fellows. It is especially noted of him that he strictly
abstained from every intoxicating drink, but was not
at this time rigid in the matter of food, il lest he might
1 Lauderdale takes its name from this river.
2 Indeed, the protection of the herds from plunder was pro
bably one of his chief duties, as he watched by night. The stout
young soldier would have been well suited for it.
FOUNDATION OF RlPON MONASTERY. 167
be less fitted for work." His strength and vigour of
body, fit for any kind of labour, is expressly
mentioned.
After some years, Cuthbert was taken with him by
his abbat to found the monastery at Ripon, and there
he was elected by the " family " to be " provost of the
guest-chamber," which was esteemed an honourable
office and one requiring much discretion.
There is a story told of St. Cuthbert while at
Ripon, which, though concerned with his life on the
other side of the border, is worth relating, not for the
miraculous element, but because it illustrates the
duties of the post which he occupied at that place,
and which was one of importance in the monasteries
of Celtic foundation. I choose the earlier anonymous
Life, rather than Bede's, as my chief source of infor
mation. Very early one morning in winter a traveller
presented himself at the guest-house. He was kindly
received by Cuthbert, as was his manner. Water was
supplied for washing the hands and feet of the
stranger, and Cuthbert, having dried his feet with
towels, rubbed and warmed them, for they were cold,
with his own hands. The stranger was anxious to
resume his journey at once, but was prevailed upon
by Cuthbert's entreaties to wait till nine o'clock (the
third hour), when food would be served. When the
bell for the third hour had sounded, and the prayers
of Terce were finished, Cuthbert made ready the
table, and placed on it some food which he had by
him. By some chance there happened to be no
bread in the guest-house, but only a few crumbs which
1 68 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
he gathered together and put on the table " for blessed
bread." l Cuthbert then left the guest-house, and
proceeded to the monastery to get some more bread,
but none was yet to be had, for the loaves were not
yet taken out of the oven. When he returned to the
guest-house the traveller was gone, and not a trace of
him could be found, though Cuthbert at once looked
for his footprints in the fresh snow with which the
ground was covered. His senses, however, as he
entered the guest-chamber were greeted with the
smell of bread of the sweetest kind, which he soon
perceived came from three hot loaves. But how did
they come there ? It was plain that his guest was an
angel.
As already mentioned, Eata and Cuthbert, with the
other brethren, had soon to leave Ripon. They were
given their choice to adopt the Roman Easter or to
depart. They chose to return to Melrose.
After his return, the pestilence, which was then
widespread through Britain, attacked the monastery.
Among the sufferers were the prior, Boisil, and
Cuthbert, The former died, having been attended
sedulously by Cuthbert, who read aloud to him, at his
request, during the week before his death, the Gospel
according to St. John. The village of St. Bosvvells, a
1 There is a passage in Adamnan (Vita S. Col., lib. ii., c. 12)
which illustrates this. I take it that the practice of the Colum-
ban monks was to break their fast, whether at the third, or, on
fast-days, at the ninth hour, by first partaking of some "blessed
bread." In Adamnan it is called cnlogia. Whether this bread
was part of the bread offered at the altar, but unconsecrated, or
had received some other kind of special benediction, is not
certain.
CUTHLERT'S LABOURS AT MELROSE. 169
few miles from Melrose, now best known for its great
sheep-fair, the largest in the south of Scotland, still
perpetuates the name of the good provost.
Cuthbert during his own illness was told how the
brethren had been praying all night for him. At once
he exclaimed, "Why do I lie here? -We cannot
think that God will despise the prayers of so many
good men. Give me my staff and my sandals." And
he thereupon rose, and attempted to walk with the
help of his staff. He gradually recovered his strength
and health, though almost throughout his whole life
he felt in some degree the injurious effects of that
formidable illness.
On the death of Boisil, Cuthbert was made provost
of the monastery of Melrose, and he followed the
good example of his predecessor, not only in the
performance of the duties within the monastic house,
but also in his labours for the welfare of the country
folk all around, whom Bede speaks of as Angles by
race. For many of them had led bad lives, or were
given over to gross superstitions, and some, even in
the time of the pestilence, neglected " the sacrament
of their faith," and resorted for protection to spells
and incantations and other idolatrous remedies.
Cuthbert went frequently among them through the
surrounding villages, sometimes on horseback, but
oftener on foot. And he took more particular care
to preach in the hamlets among the wild hills, where
other teachers were little inclined to go. Sometimes
he would spend a week in this work, or even two or
three weeks ; sometimes it was a whole month before
1 70 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
he would return home. The results that followed
were very marked. Cuthbert was a skilful instructor,
and possessed a winning and persuasive manner, and
"the light of his angelic countenance " was such that
none that were present dared to hide from him the
secrets of their hearts, but openly confessed their
deeds, because they believed that it was impossible
to hide them from him. Nor did they fail, as Bede
assures us, to follow his directions for their amend
ment.
Such is the account that has come down to us of
the labours of St. Cuthbert at Melrose.
We find that on one occasion Cuthbert, accom
panied by two of the brethren, paid a visit to the
country of the Niduarian Picts — that is, the Picts of
Galloway. But this was not for missionary purposes,
but on some business connected with the monastery,
the nature of which is not told us. They travelled
partly by sea, taking boat, we may suppose, at some
place well up in the Solway.1
On another occasion he went from Melrose to the
monastery at Coldingham (on the sea cliffs of
Berwickshire), on the invitation of the royal abbess,
St. Aebba. This Aebba was a daughter of Ethelfrid,
king of Northumbria, and sister of St. Oswald.
Coldingham (Coludi Urbs of Bede), as founded by
Aebba, was a double monastery — that is, of both monks
1 I have placed in the text the commonly accepted view of the
words " to the land of the Picts, who are called Niduari "
(Bede's Vita S. Cuthb., c. iv. ) ; but it is by no means certain
that these were not Picts north of the Forth.
VISIT TO COLDINGHAM. 17 1
and nuns, who, though residing apart, were subject to
one head. The great house of St. Brigid at Kildare
had long before set an example of such twin commu
nities. Similar was the House of St. Hilda at Whitby ;
and other examples of this practice are shown us
by history at Repton, Barking, and Wimborne ; and
in France at Brie, Autun, and Fontrevault.
The monastery of St. Aebba was placed on the wild
headland not far from the site of the lighthouse that
now marks the promontory of St. Abb's Head, which
takes its name from her.1
Connected with Cuthbert's visit to Coldingham is
a story that shows us the saint practising a form of
ascetic discipline that was a favourite in the monastic
life of the time, and for that reason it is worth recording,
St. Aebba had asked St. Cuthbert to come and preach
to the inmates of her House. He felt that he could
not refuse, and so he went, and for some days he
remained there preaching the way of righteousness.
And according to his manner, says Bede, at night,
when the rest were sleeping, he went forth alone to
pray, and so continued during the long watches of the
night till the hour of service in the church called him
back. One night a prying brother of the monastery
privately followed him. The saint was seen descend
ing the cliffs to the sea-shore, and then entering the
water till the swell of the waves reached his shoulders
1 As in so many instances, the medieval Benedictine Priory
of,. Coldingham (founded in 1098 by King Edgar) is situated at
a considerable distance, inland, from the site of the earlier
foundation. The ruins of the Priory Church still give some
notion of its former dignity.
172 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
and neck. And there he stood during the dark hours
of the night mingling his praises with the noise of the
sea (imdisonis in laudibits). When dawn approached
he came to land and began to pray afresh, as he knelt
on the shore.
This is a very interesting picture, yet it is likely
that it might never have been preserved for us, but
'for the marvel that followed. While he was praying,
two small creatures coming from the sea — Bede
says they were "otters " — approached him, and sought
to dry him with their furry coats, and to warm his feet
with their breath. This service done, they received
his blessing and glided back into their native waves.1
Cuthbert then returned to the monastery and joined
with the brethren in singing the morning psalms.
If Stevenson (Beda Opp. Hist. Mm., p. 268) is
correct in his conjecture that the name of the river
" Tesgeta " is an error of the scribe of the anonymous
Life, and should be read "Tevyota"— the Teviot—
we have another incident of Cuthbert's life that is to
be placed on the north of our modem border.2 He
1 Bede's expansion and adornment of the story in the
anonymous Life is worth a study. The anonymous Life
describes the two creatures as pusilla aniinalia mantima :
in Bede they are qiiadnipedia qiuc vulgo Lutr<.c vacant ur. If
there is any foundation at all for this part of the story, could
the creatures have been young seals, seen dimly from a distance
and in the gloom — the imagination of the prying brother
contributing something ?
2 Indeed, we need not assume any transcriptional error so far
as the letter "g" is concerned, as many instances may be found
of the change of g into;'. Thus "Mayo," see p. 179, is in
Bede ' ' Mageo. " ' ' Ely " was ' ' Elge. " Our affirmative ' ' yea "
appears in Bede as "goe." See Mayor and Lumby's Bedet p. 308.
INCIDENT IN CUTHBERT'S LIFE. 173
had gone one day towards the south, teaching and
baptizing among the country people, and was accom
panied in his journey by a boy as his attendant.
They had brought no provisions with them, and as
the day went on Cuthbert asked his companion, "Are
you thinking who has prepared your dinner for you
to-day?" The boy confessed that he had not much
hope of dinner that day. The saint replied, " Be
assured, my son, that the Lord will provide food for
those who trust in Him, for He has said, 'Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you ' ; and again
in the Prophet, ' I have been young and now am old,
yet saw I never the righteous forsaken nor his seed
begging their bread.' ' For the workman is worthy of
his hire.' " Presently an eagle comes in view on the
bank of the river with a large fish which it had caught.
The boy ran forward, and brought the fish to the
saint, who at once rebuked him with the words,
" Why did you not give part to our hungry fisher
man ? " l Then the boy took part of the fish back
to the eagle, and the remaining part they carried
with them, and when they got into inhabited places
they cooked it, and ate, and gave to others, and
being satisfied they gave glory to God, and went
on their way. Kindness towards birds and beasts —
nay, more than kindness, a real sympathy with
them — is constantly exemplified in the lives of the
ancient saints of Britain and Ireland. A truly bene
ficent influence such stories must have tended to
1 Bede spoils this in the telling.
174 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
exert in those rude times when there was so little in
the lives of the generality of men to foster the
kindlier and more humane feelings towards the dumb
creatures of God.
After some (Bede says {t many ") years at Melrose,
the abbat Eata transferred Cuthbert to Lindisfarne,
where he was appointed provost, and the story of
Cuthbert in Scotland closes.
The true appreciation of the character of St. Cuth
bert must, of course, be based on the review of his
whole life, which has not been here attempted.
I shall best consult the interests of the reader by
merely citing the estimate of that character by one
who had made himself intimately acquainted with
the time and with the man.1 "What was it," asks
Bishop Lightfoot, " that won for Cuthbert the ascend
ancy and fame which no Churchman north of the
Humber has surpassed, or even rivalled ? He was
not a great writer like Bede. He was not a first
preacher like Aidan. He founded no famous institu
tion ; he erected no magnificent building. He was
not martyred for his faith or for his Church. His
episcopate was exceptionally short [two years], and
undistinguished by any event of signal importance.
Whence, then, this transcendent position which he
long occupied, and still to a certain measure main
tains ? He owed something, doubtless, to what men
call accident. He was on the winning side in the
controversy between the Roman and English obser-
1 Dr. Blight's admirable sketch (Chapters of Early English
Church History} is too long for quotation.
SECRET OF CUTHBERT'S INFLUENCE. 175
vances of Easter.1 Moreover, the strange vicissitudes
which attended his dead body served to emphasize
the man in a remarkable way. But these are only
the buttresses of a great reputation. The foundation
of the reverence entertained for Cuthbert must be
sought elsewhere. Shall we not say that the secret
of his influence was this ? The ' I ' and ' not I '
of St. Paul's great antithesis were strongly marked
in him. There was an earnest, deeply sympathetic
nature in the man himself, and this strong personality
was purified, was heightened, was sanctified by the
communion with, the indwelling of, Christ. His
deeply sympathetic spirit breathes through all the
notices of him. It was this which attracted men
to him ; it was this which unlocked men's hearts
to him. We are told that he had a wonderful power
of adapting his instructions to the special needs
of the persons addressed. ' He always knew what
to say, to whom, when, and how to say it.' This
faculty of reading men's hearts sympathy alone can
give. And Cuthbert's overflowed, even to dumb
animals. The sea-fowl, which bear his name [the
eider-duck, called ' St. Cuthbert's duck,' which breed
on the Fame Islands],2 were his special favourites.
.... Other tales, too, are told — perhaps not alto
gether legendary — which testify to his sympathy with
and power over the lower creation. We are reminded
1 Cuthbert had been content to accept the Roman observance,
though at first he had followed the Celtic.
~ When the saint's tomb was opened in 1827, figures of these
birds were found worked in cloth of gold on the episcopal vest
ments which wrapped his body. Raine's St. Cuthbert (1828).
176 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
by these traits of other saintly persons of deeply
sympathetic nature — of Hugh of Lincoln, followed
by his tame swan, of Anselm protecting the leveret,
of Francis of Assisi conversing familiarly with the
fowls of the air and the beasts of the field as with
brothers and sisters. But if the ' I ' was thus strong
and deep, the 'not I' was not less marked.
' Not I, but Christ liveth in me.' His fervour at
the celebration of the Holy Sacrament manifested
itself even to tears. ' He imitated/ says Bede, ' the
Lord's Passion which he commemorated by offering
himself a sacrifice to God in contrition of heart.'
He died with Christ that he might live with Christ."
(Leaders in the Northern Church, p. 81.)
177
CHAPTER XI.
THE END OF THE COLUMBAN EPISCOPATE IN NORTH-
UMBRIA — THE» DIOCESE OF LINDISFARNE NORTH
OF THE TWEED — MELROSE — COLDINGHAM — ABER-
CORN — THE SEE OF CANDIDA CASA AS AN ENGLISH
FOUNDATION.
THE Scottish episcopate in Bernicia lasted not more
than thirty years. Aidan, marked above most men
by the "sweet reasonableness" of the Gospel, by
unselfishness, humility, and simplicity of life, came
from lona in 635, and laboured unceasingly till 651.
The work done by him was indeed wonderful. It is
of him Bishop Lightfoot declared, "Not Augustine,
but Aidan, is the true apostle of England." His
staff of clergy was largely recruited from the Scottish
monks, and from these he appointed the masters
of the monastic schools which he established for the
education of the children of the Angles. His suc
cessor, Finan (652 — 66 1), was also a monk from
lona. He was resolute and even " fierce " in his
maintenance of the traditions of his forefathers.
When Ronan, a fellow-countryman, who had travelled
in Italy and Gaul and had come back with altered
M
I 78 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
views, contended with him on behalf of the Easter
computation which prevailed upon the Continent,
he treated him with indignant protests. Like his two
predecessors, the third bishop, Colman (661), was
a Scot, and, like them, unyielding in his adherence
to the Scottish usages. It was in the third year
of his episcopate that the assembly was held at
Whitby, which practically decided the question,
and established the supremacy of the Roman rule
in Northumbria. Bede's interesting narrative of that
eventful meeting has been often related.1 Though
Wilfrid's overbearing zeal, and more particularly his
insolence towards the memory of St. Columba, are
painful to observe, yet he had, on the whole, the
best of the argument. But, however the arguments
on each side may have been regarded by the listeners,
the practical question was settled by King Oswy,
when he declared in language, in which the humor
ous plainly blended with the serious, "You both
acknowledge that it was not to Columba but to Peter
that the Lord said, * To thee will I give the keys
of the kingdom of heaven ' ; and I tell you that he
is a doorkeeper whom I am unwilling to gainsay ;
but, as far as I know and have the power, I desire
to be obedient to his injunctions, lest haply, when
I come to the gates of the kingdom of heaven,
there may be no one to unlock, if he is unfriendly
who is shown to hold the keys."
And so Colman departed from Lindisfarne, accom-
1 And nowhere better than in Bright's Chapters of Early
English History •, chap. vi.
COLMAN'S DEPARTURE FROM LINDISFARNE. 179
panied by the whole of his Scottish brethren and
about thirty attached monks of Anglic nationality.
Some of the bones of the founder, Aidan, were rever
ently taken with them, and they travelled the sad
journey of defeated men to lona. It may well be
that the House at lona was unable to permanently
maintain so large an addition to the community as was
thus suddenly thrust upon it. At any rate, Colman
before long removed his monks to Ireland, and settled
them in Innisboffin (the " island of the white heifer "),
situated two or three miles off the nearest point of the
coast of Mayo, and wholly exposed to the wild sweep
of the Atlantic. After a time, according to Bede, dis
sensions arose between the Irish and English monks,
the latter complaining that the Irish used to shirk the
harvest work by leaving the island in autumn and going
about among friends, and that then on their return,
when winter set in, they sought to lay claim to a share
in the fruit of the others' labours. Colman solved the
difficulty by buying a small piece of land from a chief
on the mainland, and building there a monastery for
his Englishmen.1 He himself remained at Innisboffin
till his death, which event has been placed by the Irish
chronicler, Tighernach of Clonmacnois, in the year
1 The English monastery of Mayo, known as "Mayo of the
Saxons," increased in size and importance, and afterwards became
the seat of a bishopric. St. Gerald, an Englishman, is said to
have been the first bishop. Innisboffin derives its name, according
to the general belief, from a white "water-cow " that lived in a
lake on the island, and indeed still lives there, if one may ac
cept the word of the islanders. Compare the story told at p. 78.
See Bishop Healy's Insnla Sanctorum, etc., p. 531. In acreage
Innisboffin is a very little larger than lona.
l8o THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
676. Thus closed in Northumbria the mission of the
Scottish Church in its independence of Rome.
Men from the Scotic Church, whether from Ireland
direct or through its houses in North Britain, con
tinued from time to time to do good work for England,
but after the departure of Colman it was only as
adopted children of the Roman mission. Yet the
inestimable services of the original Scotic mission can
never be forgotten. The mission begun with Aidan
did its work " with a rare simplicity of purpose. It
brought religion straight home to men's hearts by sheer
power of love and self-sacrifice ; it held up before
them, in the unconscious goodness and nobleness of
its representatives, the moral evidence of Christianity.
It made them feel what it was to be taught and cared
for in the life spiritual by pastors who before all things
were the disciples and ministers of Christ." l
One other glimpse we get of Melrose from the pages
of Bede, and we eagerly take advantage of it, as after
leaving Bede we shall be compelled to content our
selves with a few meagre notices of the chroniclers.
We shall then pass from the clear light of his invalu
able records, and shall have no choice but to grope
about in gloom with only a few definite landmarks
to guide us.
Provision was sometimes made in the monasteries
of Celtic foundation for monks who, for a longer or
shorter period, desired such seclusion for the purposes
of devotion and the practice of increased austerities,
1 Bright, Chapters ; etc., p. 204.
DRYHTHELM COMES TO LIFE AGAIN. l8l
+
as could not be had by those living in community.
The seeking of a " desert " (as such places of retire
ment were called) is a common feature in the lives of
Irish saints. In lona, a place at some little distance
from the monastic buildings was called the " desert." A
story, related by Bede (Eccles. Hist., lib. v., c. 1 2), shows
us that at the monastery of Melrose a similar practice
existed. A good man named Dryhthelm, who belonged
to a district that has been commonly (though not satis
factorily) identified with Cunningham in Ayrshire, fell
ill, and after some days died in the beginning of the
night. Early next morning he came to life again, and
sat up, to the dismay of the mourners, who, with the
exception of his loving wife, all fled precipitately. After
dividing his property into three parts— one of which
was given to his wife, one to his children, and one to
the poor — he repaired to the monastery at Melrose,
where he continued till he died a second time, an
event which the Saxon Chronicle places at the year
693. Bede relates at great length what Dryhthelm
declared he saw in his disembodied state. The teach
ing of his experiences differs in nothing essential from
the fully-developed Romish doctrine of purgatory, and
it is expressly insisted on that many are relieved before
the day of judgment " by the prayers, alms, and fasting
of the living, but more especially by masses." * What
1 The visions of the Irish monk Fursey (Bede, Eccles. 7//.v/.,
lib. iii., c. 19) of an earlier date bear the same complexion, but
are not nearly so definite in their teaching. I suspect Bede, who
had always an eye to pressing a point of dogma, was anxious to
advance a view which was as yet less distinctly pronounced in
the Irish Church.
182 TTIE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
he saw and heard in the world of spirits, Dryhthelm
related to Aldfrid, king of Northurnbria, among others,
and it was at the king's request he was admitted into
Melrose. In after times, when the king happened to
be in those parts, he very often visited Melrose to hear
the holy man.
A place of greater seclusion was granted to Dryh
thelm in the monastery, where he practised special
austerities, in daily fastings, and in a form of self-
inflicted penance that one finds often recurring in the
records of that period — the standing in cold water
while prayers or the Psalter were recited. Dryhthelm
would go up to the middle, and sometimes up to the
neck, in the Tweed, and stand there as long as he
could endure it. In winter he broke the ice for this
purpose. And when those who witnessed him stand
ing in the river with pieces of ice floating about would
say, " It is wonderful, Brother Dryhthelm, that you are
able to endure such extreme cold ; " he would simply
answer, for he was a man of simple wit, tl I have seen
greater cold." And when they said, " It^is wonderful
that you can endure such hardship;" he would reply,
" I have seen greater hardship." And these things he
said, doubtless remembering the hail and snow that
formed part of the purgatorial torments he had wit
nessed, a cold so cutting that the wretched sufferers
would leap back into the flames. On leaving the river,
it was his practice not to put off his wet or frozen
garments till they had dried upon his body.
Ethelwold, who afterwards became bishop of Lin-
disfarne, was abbat of Melrose at the time of Dryh-
ARTISTIC WORK. 183
thelm's admission. He had formerly been a minister
of St. Cuthbert ; that is, as I take it, he occupied the
honourable position of personal companion and atten
dant of St. Cuthbert, an office probably similar to that
which we may remember was in the life of St. Columba
filled for him by the faithful Diarmit. And in honour
of St. Cuthbert he had himself designed a beautiful
cross of polished stone, which formed one of the
treasures of Lindisfarne, and which accompanied the
other sacred relics in their many wanderings. To his
artistic taste also is due the splendidly ornamented and
jewelled cover 1 of the " Lindisfarne Gospels," or
"Book of Durham," which manuscript (now preserved
in the British Museum) for the beauty of its decorative
ornaments stands only second to the " Book of Kells,"
the chief glory of the manuscript collection in the
Library of Trinity College, Dublin. The manual work
of the scribe of the Lindisfarne Gospels, Eadfrid
(Ethelwold's predecessor in the bishopric), is truly
exquisite, but every minutest feature of the ornament
is characteristically Scotic, and was the unquestionable
outcome of the artistic tradition of the Scotic founda
tion. No relic of such artistic work has come down
to us from the ancient monastery of Melrose ; but we
need not hesitate to believe that there, as in the
mother house of Lindisfarne, at least under such a
lover of art as Ethel wold, the illuminative work of the
scriptorium would not have been neglected.
It may, with much reason, be questioned whether
1 See pp.- 317— 320.
184 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
exact boundaries of the diocese of Lindisfarne north
of the Tweed were ever clearly defined. A more
correct way of putting the inquiry seems to me, In
what parts of the country north of Tweed was the
authority of the bishop of Lindisfarne acknowledged ?
In default of earlier sources of information, we have
to resort to Simeon of Durham, a twelfth-century
writer ; but I see no reason to suppose that he,
making use of sources of information not now avail
able, has not indicated the actual facts with sub
stantial accuracy. Generally, then, we may put it
that from the east coast to where the river Leader
flows into the Tweed a little below Melrose, was
under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Lindis
farne. Then came lands, and even wide districts
attached in some way to monastic houses, which
acknowledged his rule, as Melrose and its lands to
the west of the Leader, and the wide stretch of
country from the northern slopes of the Lammermuir
Hills, to the mouth of the Esk (at the town we now
call Musselburgh), bounded on the north by the Firth
of Forth, which district Simeon speaks of as pertain
ing to St. Baldred's monastery of Tyninghame, near
Dunbar. Roughly, then, our modern counties of
Berwickshire and Haddingtonshire formed the Scot
tish portion of the diocese of Lindisfarne : while
outside these bounds the authority of the bishop was
acknowledged further west at Edinburgh, and at the
religious house of Abercorn higher up the Forth, and
at the two Jeddarts by the Teviot in the south.
Visitors to the site of the old monastic house on
THE PRINCESS ETHELPREPA. 185
the lofty sea-beaten cliffs, at Coldingham should recall
that at that spot the Princess Etheldreda, whose
memory was afterwards so closely associated with
Ely, spent the first year of her conventual life (671).
She had been twice married — married at least in name,
for she had made a firm resolution of perpetual
virginity; and the unhappiness caused by such a
union with her second husband, Egfrid, king of
Northumbria, soon brought about a divorce.1 Aebba,
abbess of Coldingham, was King Egfrid's aunt, and it
was under her Etheldreda placed herself when she
took the veil, which she received at Coldingham at
the hand of the famous Wilfrid. Thomas, the monk
of Ely, in the reign of Henry II., who has written at
length about her life, alleges that the king, her husband,
made an attempt in person to carry her off from
Coldingham, and that she, accompanied by two sisters
of the convent, had to leave the buildings and seek
safety in the neighbourhood for a time. Perhaps it
was due to this danger that she removed from the
kingdom of Egfrid, to her old house in the south. At
any rate, she herself was soon after made an abbess " in
the country called Ely."
As not unconnected with our northern Church, we
may notice that Etheldreda is said to have made with
her own hands, as a gift for St. Cuthbert, a magnificent
stole and maniple, adorned with gold and precious
stones. In after years the abbess used to reproach
^ Wilfrid's conduct in this affair contrasts most unfavourably
with Columbia's action in bringing a wife to a sense of her duty
to her husband, as recorded by Adamnan (lib. ii., c. 42).
1 86 THE CELTIC CHURCH TN SCOTLAND.
herself for having worn splendid and costly necklaces
in her youth, and regarded a tumour in the neck
from which she suffered as a sign that God by this
chastisement absolved her from the guilt of that
youthful vanity. May we venture on the conjecture
that her discarded jewels went to the adornment of
St. Cuthbert's stole and maniple ?
It was only six or seven years after the departure of
the royal Etheldreda (indeed, according to the Saxon
Chronicle, in the very year of her death, 679), that a
terrible calamity fell upon the monastery at Colding-
ham, which was burned to the ground. Bede tells us
that the fire originated through carelessness, but goes on
to show that what happened was really a Divine judg
ment on the self-indulgent lives of the inmates. There
were always special dangers attaching to the system of
double monasteries, but it does not seem as if, in
this instance, the laxity of discipline was directly
attributable to the appropinquity of the two houses.
One of the monks of Coldingham, a man of the
Scotic race, and bearing, like the biographer of
Columba, the name of Adamnan, was wont to practise
unusual austerities, being greatly given to vigils and
prayers, and taking food only twice in the week, on
the Lord's Day and on Thursday. One day he and a
brother monk had occasion to travel to some distance
from Coldingham, and as they returned and came
within sight of the lofty buildings of the convent
(aedifiria sublimiter erecta\ Adamnan burst into tears,
and, on being questioned by his companion, he
declared that a devouring fire was about to consume
A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR. 187
all those fair buildings. This saying being reported
to Aebba, the mother of the community, she sent for
Adamnan, and inquired of him how he came to
speak as he had done. Then he told how, while
watching one night and singing the Psalms, an
unknown person had suddenly appeared and revealed
to him that all except himself, both men and women,
indulged themselves habitually in slothful sleep, or,
if they were awake, were only awake "unto sin."
" I have looked," said the mysterious visitor, "into
every one's chamber and bed." The rooms built for
prayer and study had become — so he declared —
places of feasting, drinking, gossip and story-telling
(fabvlationcs\ and other seductions. The nuns, he
went on to complain, with lives dedicated to God's
service, spent their leisure time in weaving for them
selves raiment of delicate texture, in which they would
adorn themselves like brides, or even thus seek to
attract the favour of strangers (externorum rirorum).
Adamnan comforted the abbess by telling her that the
evil would not happen in her days ; and a return to a
stricter discipline was shortly afterwards effected. But
after Aebba' s death, as Bede relates, the inmates of
the monastery went back to their evil ways, and the
last state was worse than the first ; and then came the
destruction of the house by fire.1
In estimating the. historical value of the narrative here
1 "Fire from heaven," says the Saxon Chronicle, at A. D. 679.
The date commonly assigned for St. Aebba's death — 683 — does
not square with the story related by Bede. The burning of the
monastery must have been later. See Bright, Chapters, etc., p.
1 88 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
given, we must remember that the reproaches heaped
upon the sisters and brethren of the Coldingham
convent came from the mouth of a rigid ascetic,
whose rule of food only twice a week might very
easily beget a spirit of criticism that was unjust to
others ; and that he had nothing worse to tell makes
one believe that after all the laxity of the monastic
discipline may have been much exaggerated. A
really valuable piece of information is that which
shows us the nuns occupied in fine work at the loom.
And if it be true that men not belonging to the
institution were liable to be affected by the charms of
the sisters in fine raiment, it shows us that the cloister
was not as strict as it came afterwards to be in most
religious houses.
There is yet one other incident of this period
connected with Coldingham that deserves notice.
Egfrid, after his separation from Etheldreda, had
married again. And Ermenburga, his second
wife, shared with her husband in a strong dislike to
the assumptions of Wilfrid. It is outside our scope
to tell his story, but it is well known with what
contempt his " bull," procured at Rome, was rejected
by the king and his witan. Wilfrid was imprisoned,
and the reliquary, which he used to wear round his
neck, appropriated by Ermenburga. This precious
talisman hung in her bedroom, or in her carriage
when she travelled. On the occasion of a stately
progress through his dominions, the king and queen
arrived at the monastery of St. Aebba at Coldingham.
There the queen took ill with some kind of convul-
CONSECRATION OF TRUMWIN. 189
sions, and was at the point of death.1 Their hostess, St.
Aebba, believed the illness was a judgment on the king
and queen for their treatment of Wilfrid, She declared
that if Wilfrid were released and his case of relics re
stored to him, the queen would recover. And as she
counselled it was done, and the queen was restored to
health as the holy abbess had foretold. It adds to the
interest of this incident on Scottish soil if we realize that
at this very time Wilfrid was only some fifteen miles
distant a close prisoner of the king, in chains at Dunbar.
We have already spoken of Abercorn (a few miles
higher up the Forth than what is now South
Queen sferry) as a monastic foundation under the
jurisdiction of the bishops of Lindisfarne. In 68 1,
a bishop, named Trumwin, was consecrated by
Archbishop Theodore for the extreme northern part
of Egfrid's dominions. His residence was to be at
Abercorn, and his labours were to be extended to the
region of the Picts, over which Egfrid claimed the
sovereignty — a sovereignty which was, however, rather
nominal than real. But Trumwin's northern episcopate
was of short duration. In 685 Egfrid with an army
advanced to devastate the country of the Picts north of
the Forth, and being cleverly lured among the hills
by the enemy, who had made a show of flight, he
was slain, and his troops routed with great slaughter
at Dunnichen in Forfarshire.- Trumwin's position
1 The violent partisan Eddi, in his Life of St. Wilfrid, speaks
of this illness as a demoniacal possession.
- Skene (Celtic Scotlatid, vol. i., p. 266) connects a large
number of stone coffins found in the neighbourhood with the
slaughter of this battle,
1 90 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
became untenable at Abercorn, and he withdrew
with his monks, who were distributed in different
monasteries. He himself retired to Whitby, where he
remained the comfort and support of Elfleda, the
late king's sister, who had succeeded St. Hilda as
abbess of the double foundation.
Egfrid's body, according to Simeon of Durham
(Hist. Dun. Eccles., lib. i., c. 9), was buried at lona.
He was an able king, and a most generous benefactor
of the Northumbrian Church.1
It is worthy of notice that Bede does not tell us
where King Egfrid's body was interred. He, with his
strong convictions, would not have cared to think
that the royal friend of St. Cuthbert, and the founder
of bishoprics, was given his last resting-place among
men who shaved their heads like Simon Magus, and
kept Easter the wrong way. We cannot doubt that the
interment in lona was intended by the victors as an
honourable distinction for the body of the vanquished
king. It may have been requested by the abbat of
lona, at the instance of Aldfrid, the king's brother and
successor, who either was then, or certainly had been
shortly before, a guest of the monastery. It was a
long journey across difficult country from the spot
where he fell to the remote island in the west.
Aldfrid, who succeeded to the throne, is described by
Bede as a man " most learned in the Scriptures." He
1 The sympathizers with Wilfrid could not readily forgive
him, and in Eadmer's Lift of St. Wilfrid (chap, xliii.), we are told
that that saint, when celebrating mass in Sussex, saw two demons
carrying off the soul of Egfrid from the fatal battle-field to the
torments of hell.
BISHOPRIC OF CANDIDA CASA. 19!
had gone for the sake of study to lona.1 And it was
there in all probability that he made that acquaintance
with Adamnan which paved the way to the successful
mission of the latter to the king's court with a view
to urge the release of his captive fellow-countrymen,
whom Egfrid had carried off from Ireland in his raid
upon that country the year before his fatal expedition
against the Picts.- The king's known love of learning
doubtless prompted the gift, which Adamnan after
wards made to him, of a copy of the work, Concerning
the Holy Places^ already noticed.:J
It belongs to the department of civil history to tell
how the power of the Northumbrian kings became
extended to the south-west of Scotland. But the
revival of the bishopric of Candida Casa under
English bishops has here to be recorded. The fifth
and last book of Bede's Ecclesiastical History brings the
story down to the year 732. And there (lib. v., c. 23),
speaking of the four bishoprics which then existed in
the Northumbrian kingdom — viz., York, Lindisfarne,
Hexham, and Candida Casa — he tells us that the last-
named had "lately" become an episcopal see on
account of the increased number of the faithful in that
part, and he mentions as its first bishop Pechthelm,
who had been a deacon or monk of Aldhelm, bishop
of Sherborne. Hence it has been commonly stated
that the see was revived under the English about 730.
We have no evidence as to whether the old British
1 See anonymous Life of St. Cuthbert,§ 28 ; and Bede's Life of
St. Cuthbcrt, lib. i., c. 24.
3 See p. 189. . a See pp. 148—151.
192 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND,
succession, originating in St. Ninian, had been main
tained up to this time ; nor, indeed, is it certain,
though it is probable, that the monastery, once so
famous as a school of learning, continued to exist. Its
ancient repute for learning, and for sanctity, as con
taining the relics of St. Ninian, would have sufficed to
determine the choice of Whithorn for the bishop's
see. The Anglic succession of bishops of Candida
Casa was continued in the persons of four other
bishops for some seventy years, after which the
frequent and destructive raids of the Picts and Scots
made the position untenable for the English.1
1 The authorities for these statements, and for the names of the
successive bishops, will be found in Bishop Forbes' Lives of St.
Ninian and St. Kentigern {Historians of Scotland, vol. v.,
p. xliv), and reference may be made to William of Malmesbury
(Gest. Pontific. An»L, lib. iii., e. 118), cited by Skene (Celtic
Scotland, vol. ii., p. 225). Little beyond what has been
stated above is known of the Church in Scotland and the neigh
bouring districts during this period. Skene, with reason,
connects the numerous dedications to St. Cuthbert and St.
Oswald in the south-west of Scotland with this period. See also
Grub (Eccles. Hist, of Scotland, vol. L, pp. 121-4).
193
CHAPTER XII.
THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND IN THE NINTH, TENTH, AND
ELEVENTH CENTURIES — THE CULDEES.
FROM the writings of Adamnan and Bede, the
student can gather materials for life-like and truthful
pictures of the condition of the monastic Church in
Scotland. The Church in the western islands and
highlands is clearly figured for us by the former, the
Church in Lothian by the latter. But when we pass
from the bright light of their vivid presentations of
men and things, we at once enter upon a lengthened
period of gloom and obscurity, through which we
grope our way with difficulty, and from which the
most thorough inquirers emerge with but little know
ledge. A few names of bishops or monks, a few
dates, of which some are questionable, a few events
associated with a monastery here and a church there,
all recorded with the brevity of the baldest
chronicler, supply us with almost the whole of our
authentic information for some three hundred years
and more. The legendary tales which we find in
after times connected with the names of certain
Celtic saints who make their shadowy appearance
194 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
during this extended period, rarely reward an investi
gator with even the smallest residuum of ascertained
fact. Adamnan died in 704, Bede in 735. It was
probably in 1068 that the Saxon princess, Margaret,
entered Scotland. With that event the history of the
mediaeval Church in Scotland makes a definite depar
ture. But the interval between the death of Bede and
the latter of these dates lies as a long stretch of time,
of which the authentic notices concerning ecclesiastical
affairs could be given in a few pages. Mr. Hill
Burton is justified in calling this " the dark period "
of Scottish history.1 If the Church in Scotland
during this period of its history was not absolutely
barren of literature, no remains of any of its writers
have come down to us. But we must make the best
of what we have ; and we thankfully recognize the
value of the brief references to Scotland that are to
be found in the Irish annalists. These, with a very
few notices from other quarters and later sources, are
all the materials at our disposal.
The general character of the information thus
supplied may be better exhibited by a few examples
than by any description. Thus, we read—
" 727. The relics of Adamnan removed to Ireland, and
the law renewed." Tighernach, of Clonmacnoise, who
died 1088.
" The law " referred to was probably the Cain
Adhamnain, called also the Lex Innocentium, or Law
of the Harmless, which, as we have seen (p. 145), was
1 History of Scotland^ vol. i., p. 389. j
ECCLESIASTICAL REFERENCES. 195
enacted under the influence of Adamnan for exempt
ing women from military service. The evil here
condemned is to be found among the Picts of Galloway
as late as the twelfth century.1
" 737. Death of Ronain, abbat of Cindgaradh " [Y. e.
Kingarth in Bute].
" Failbe, son of Guairi, heir [/'. e. co-arb] of Maelrubha,
in Applecross, drowned at sea with twenty-two of his
sailors. " — Tighernach.
" 766. Suibne, abbat of la [/. e. Hy or lona], comes to
Ireland."— A nnals of Ulster.
"790. Artgal, son of Cathail, King of Connaught,
died at Hy."— Ib.
" 794. Ravaging of all the islands of Britain by the
heathen."— /£.
"800. The placing of the relics of Ronain, son of
Berich, in a shrine of gold and silver." — Ib.
" 802. Hy, of Columkille, burned by the heathen."— Ib.
" 806. The community (familia) of Hy, sixty-eight in
number, slain by the heathen." — Ib.
" 807. Construction of the new city \i. e. monastery]
of Columkille in Kells."— Ib.
" 8 1 8. Diarmaid, abbat of la, went to Alban with the
shrine of Columkille." — Chronicle of the Scots.
"825. Martyrdom of Blathmac by the pagans in Hy
of Columkille."— A nnals of Ulster.
"831. Diarmaid goes to Erin with the Mionna [/. e.
as is supposed, the relics other than the body] of Colum
kille."— /£.
" 850. In the seventh year of his [Kenneth's] reign he
carries relics of St. Columba to the church which he had
constructed " [at Dunkeld]. — Chronicle of the Picts.
" 865. Tuathal, son of Artguso, first bishop of Fortren
\i. e. the kingdom of the Picts] and abbat of Dunkeld,
died." — Annals of Ulster.
" 878. The shrine of Columkille and all his reliquaries
1 See Robertson's Statuta Ecdesic? Scoticanir, vol. i., p.
15-
196 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
were taken [/. e. from lona] to Erin to escape the
foreigners. "— Ib.
" 908. In his sixth year [/. c. about 908] the king,
Constantine, and the bishop, Cellach, solemnly vowed at
the Hill of Faith \collis credulitatis~\ to preserve the laws
and discipline of the faith, and the rights of churches and
of the Gospels, equally with the Scots." — Chronicle of the
Picts?
"935. Angus, son of Muirchertach, a learned man,
anchorite, and abbat-elect of lona, died." — Annals of the
Four Masters.
About 977. Kenneth " gave the great city [/. e.
monastery] of Brechin to the Lord." — Chronicle of the
Puts.
"986. The island of Columkille plundered by the
Danes on the eve of the Nativity, and the abbat and
fifteen clerics slain." — Annals of Ulster.
" Maelruannaidh Ua Maeldoraigh, lord of Cinel Conall,
went over the sea [2. e. to lona] on his pilgrimage. "-
Annals of the Four Masters.
" 1027. Dunkeld, in Alban, entirely burnt." — Annals
of Ulster.
" 1055. Maelduin, son of Gillandris, bishop of Alban
and ordainer of the clergy to the Gael (?), slept in Christ."-
Tighernach?
These entries, of very varying degrees of importance,
are exhibited here, as they appear in the chroniclers,
as specimens of the evidence which we possess for
our Scottish Church history during more than three
hundred years. Upon these much labour and ingenious
comment has been bestowed by our historians. Such
notices generally possess the advantage, denied by
Adamnan and scantily supplied by Bede, of giving
f
1 A little hill near Scone was the scene of this event.
2 Reeves (Historians of Scotland, vol. vi., p. 340) renders the
phrase gloria cleri Gaedhil.
DECLINE OF IONA. 197
us helps to a definite chronology. But the notices,
even of events that keenly stir our interest, are of the
meagrest and baldest kind. What little can be ex
tracted from such material will be found, with con
jectures and illustrations of varying values, in the pages
of Pinkerton and Skene.
The repeated ravages of the Danes was one of the
main causes for the decline of the influence of lona.
The head of the Columban houses was transferred
from lona to Kells (in County Meath), where a stone
monastery was built (807 — 814). A sense of insecurity
and overshadowing fear must have exercised in more
or less degree a paralyzing effect upon the brother
hood. It is true the house at lona was rebuilt, and
now of stone. The shrine of Columba was brought
back (8 1 8); but after seven years another onslaught
of the northern pirates resulted in the martyrdom of
Blaithmac (825). The centre of civil power was now -
established on the eastern side of the country ; and
the chief ecclesiastical authority, during the period
with which we are dealing, became transferred — first
to Dunkeld (850), then, perhaps, to Abernethy, and, \
beyond doubt, finally to St. Andrews.
It is probably to the second half of the ninth
century should be assigned an attack of the Danes,
which, according to the legend of "St. Adrian and his
companions," resulted in the slaughter of a religious
community that had settled in the Isle of May, which
lies l at the widest part of the opening of the estuary
1 The island is about a mile in length and three-quarters of a
mile in breadth. It is about six miles from the coast of Fife.
198 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
of the Forth. The legend abounds in grotesquely
absurd improbabilites (see p. 74). St. Adrian, who
was of royal blood and born in Hungary, visits Scot
land with 6606 companions. Mr. Skene expends
here, as in some other similar cases, much misplaced
ingenuity in attempting to show that Adrian was one
of the Irish missionaries. There is, in truth, not a
particle of what can be reasonably called evidence in
support of his contention ; and the whole story might
be dismissed, like so many similar tales from the
legends of the mediaeval breviaries, as historically
valueless, were it not that the local tradition certainly
connected the later foundation in the Isle of May with
a martyrdom of Christians in that place, and there are
historical reasons for thinking that such an attack of
the Danes, in the reign of Constantine (863 — 875), the
son of Kenneth MacAlpin, was in no way improbable.
David I., who was so eminently distinguished for the
establishing of religious houses, was wont to choose
for his foundations places already possessing some
sacred associations, and it was perhaps on this
account that he made the grant of the Isle of May to
the monks of the Benedictine Abbey of Reading, in
Berkshire, which had shortly before been founded
by his brother-in-law, Henry I. of England. If in
David's time the tradition already existed that Adrian
was a native of Hungary and of royal race, there would
be a further reason why the son of a princess, who was
herself a native of Hungary (see p. 277), should
honour the Hungarian martyr on the spot assigned
as the place of his death.
BURNING OF MELROSE. 199
The legend recounts the names of several of his
companions ; but it may suffice to mention the
Hungarian Monanus, who, it is said, preached the
gospel at Inverry, on the coast of Fife, and whose name
survives in the parish and church of St. Monans
between Ely and Pittenweem.1 The cultus of both
St. Adrian and St. Monan was well marked in
mediaeval times. Childless wives were frequent in
their devotions at the Isle of May, and many miracles
(including the extrusion of a barbed arrow from the
body of King David II.) were attributed to the inter
cessions of St. Monan. But here we are concerned
only with the possible truth of the martyrdom by the
Danes ; and we can go so far as to say that a martyr
dom of religious in the Isle of May is by no means
improbable at the date assigned.
The notices of the Church in the south of Scotland
are even scantier than those relating to the parts of
the country under Irish influence, and within the ken
of the Irish chroniclers. An outstanding event was
the burning of Melrose, about the middle of the ninth
century, by Kenneth MacAlpin, monarch of the now
united kingdoms of the Scots and Picts, in one of his
numerous raids into the territory of the Angles.
A few years later (870) the other great monastery of
the south, Coldingham, is said to have been burned by
the Danes. A second Aebba appears as abbess ; and
the story runs that she and the sisters of the convent
on the approach of the enemy disfigured themselves
1 The church of St. Monans is picturesquely situated on a rock
by the sea.
200 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
frightfully by cutting away their noses and lips as a
protection against the licentious violence of the
Danes. The abbess and nuns perished in the burning
house.
The revival of the bishopric of Candida Casa under
the Angles has been already noticed (p. 191).
Some brief account may here be given of the fortunes
of religion in the northern islands. There is no doubt
that the Gospel was preached among the Picts of the
islands by missionaries of the Columban brotherhood.
But in the northern islands the heathen Scandina
vians (generally spoken of as Danes by our historians),
who had at first only paid temporary visits for the
purposes of plunder, came eventually to make settle
ments and to take possession. They extended their
power even to parts of the mainland, and Caithness
and Sutherland formed part of the earldom of Orkney
under the suzerainty of the King of Norway. The
efforts of the Columban Church to preserve Christianity
and extend it among the heathen conquerors were
inadequate for the accomplishment of the task. But
when Christianity obtained possession of Scandinavia,
at the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh
century, it was impossible but that the conversion of
the colonies and outposts would follow. Orkney,
Shetland, and the Faroe Islands were compelled by
the fierce and enthusiastic neophyte, King Olave
Tryggvesen, to accept the Christian faith at the point
of the sword, and it was the choice between baptism
and death that gave us the first Christian Earl of
Orkney. Even the king's more famous namesake,
'CULDEES. 201
known as St. Olave, who succeeded to the throne in
1015, pressed the claims of the new religion by the
terrors of confiscation, mutilation, and death.
This is not an unsuitable place to say something of
the ecclesiastics commonly known as "Culdees," to
whom an entirely fictitious importance has been given
through the misunderstandings of later historians, and
the unintelligent partisanship of religious controver
sialists.
The notices of the Culdees in Scottish records are
few ; but the investigation of the evidence, illustrated
by the notices of ecclesiastics bearing a similar name
in Ireland, leaves in the first place no doubt that they
were bodies of clerics quite distinct from the Columban
monks. In Scotland they were to be found almost
exclusively in regions where the Columban influence £
was weakest. They were attached in several cases to
important churches, and were responsible for and
engaged in the conduct of the round of Divine service. '
It must be remembered that the great body of the
Columban monks were laymen, and were necessarily
much occupied with tillage, the care of flocks and
herds, and the varied labour connected with the •
maintenance of the community.
The Keledei (for such is the Scottish form of the :
word), it would seem, were not large communities. .
They were enabled by gifts and the possession of
endowments to devote themselves exclusively to
private or public devotions. Writers of such eminence •
as Reeves (whose monograph, On the Culdees of the
202 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
British Isles, Dublin, 1864, is the classical authority on
1 the subject) and Skene (Celtic Scotland, vol. ii.) point
to resemblances between the Culdees and the "canons
regular," first established by Chrodegang, archbishop
of Metz (740 — 764). But the differences are as
striking as the resemblances ; for while Chrodegang's
canons lived in one house and slept in one dormitory,
unless especially exempted, the Culdees are, at least
in some places, represented as living, what was styled
in the ecclesiastical language of the day, an " eremitical
life." That is, as is shown by the evidence, they lived
in separate houses or cells within the same enclosure.
In the Chartulary of St. Andrews there is entered
a record of an early grant made to the Culdees of
Lochleven. It is, I think, the very earliest notice of
these persons to be found in Scottish history. There
we are told that Brude, son of Dergard, king of the
Picts (whose death is placed in the year 706), "gives
the isle of Lochleven to God Almighty, St. Serf, and
the Keledei hermits dwelling there, who are serving,
or shall hereafter serve, God in that island." The
other places in Scotland which we find connected
with Keledei are St. Andrews, Dunkeld, Dunblane,
' Brechin, Rosmarky, Dornoch, Lismore (all of them
afterwards episcopal sees), and Abernethy, Mony-
musk, Muthill, Monifieth, and, at a late period (1164),
lona, where the Keledei are mentioned as distinct
from the general body of the religious. The existence
of corporations of endowed clergy at the seven places
first named mayt perhaps have been one of the reasons
why these places were eventually selected for the
LAXITY OF DISCIPLINE. 203
seats of bishoprics. The provision, when not irregu
larly alienated, was found to be already made, in
whole or in part, for the maintenance of the round of
services in the cathedral churches of those sees.
In the disorganization which affected the whole /
Church in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, the
seizure and appropriation of Church property by lay
men was only too common, and its tenure may have
been facilitated by some nominal assumption by them
of the titles belonging to the heads and other officers
of the religious corporations. Discipline was griev
ously relaxed, and there may have been some found
ation in fact for the statement made in the sixteenth
century by Alexander Mylne ( Vitce Episcoporum
Dunkeldensum, p. 4), so far as it asserts that the
Keledei of St. Andrews at one time had wives. Similar
irregularities (some of them indeed of a highly im
moral kind) were to be found among the canon
clerics, to whose organization the corporations of
Culdees were most nearly akin in England and the
Continent. The canons of Winchester in the tenth
century had wives whom they treated with gross
indecency,1 and Archbishop Aelfric of Canterbury, in
his Life of Aethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, records
even a worse state of things, for he describes the
clergy of the cathedral as not only possessing wives,
but as repudiating them and taking others. And gener
ally in Saxon England we may accept the statement
of Dr. Lingard (Anglo-Saxon Church, vol. ii., p. 254),
that " married priests became sufficiently numerous to
1 See Thorpe's Diplomata Anglic. sEvi Saxon, p. 260.
204 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
bid defiance to the laws both of the Church and
the State." On the continent of Europe things were
no better. Helyot, with special reference to the
eleventh century, declares that discipline among the
canons was relaxed to such a point that they were
simply "overwhelmed in the sink of universal incon
tinence." 1 There is no reason whatever for supposing
that the possessing wives on the part of the Scottish
Culdees, if such be the case, was anything different
from such connections in England and abroad. It
was not, as Mylne would suggest, an approved survival
of the Eastern discipline which permitted marriage to
• the secular clergy, but simply an outcome of the
general decay of ecclesiastical discipline in the West.2
Even after the thorough investigation made by
Reeves, the question of the origin of the Culdees
remains obscure. The researches of this scholar
point to the fact, which is abundantly evident in the
Irish Church and the Columban Church of Scotland,
that the busy life of the monastic communities came
by some to be regarded as a state less perfect than the
life of retired devotion which might be found in a
" desert," a name sometimes, as we have seen, applied
to a cell removed only a short way from the general
buildings of the monastery. At first, retirement to
such place was only for a time, but afterwards there
were those who sought a life-long seclusion in these
or in remoter solitudes. Absolute solitude seems to
1 Histoire des Ordres Monast. vol. i., col. 774, edit. Migne.
a We have no contemporary evidence, however, for the marriage
of the Scottish Culdees.
ORIGIN OF THE KELEDEI. 205
have proved, as time went on, too trying for human
nature, and, by and by, groups of cells were formed,
and "anchorites," "hermits," and " Cele De" (in
Scotland " Keledei ") were names bestowed upon
their occupants.
The name, as well as the office and position, of the
Keledei, has been much discussed. The notion of
the historians of a later time connecting the word
with the Latin Cultores Dei has given rise to the
popular form "Culdees." But this has found less
general acceptance among recent historians. Reeves
and Skene concur in deriving the word from the
Irish Cele De, which the former would render as
" Servants of God," while the latter would take Cele'
in its sense of "companion" or "friend." On behalf
of Skene's view, it may be remarked that " servant
of God " (servus Dei) was a common designation of
any one who had adopted the monastic life ; while in
the case before us a very distinct and special class of
devotees is intended. Again, Colgan, whom Reeves
describes as "a master of the Irish language,"
declares that the word should be rendered in Latin
Deicola or Amadeus.
Though with great diffidence, after the declarations
of two such eminent authorities, I am disposed to
think that more may be said than is now generally
supposed for the old view that Culdee is a corruption
of Cultor Dei, or connected with colo. Colidei is
the form in which the word appears at York, and
Dr. Lingard (Anglo-Saxon Church, vol. ii., p. 294)
has pointed out that the prebendaries of Canterbury
206 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
are in an old charter styled Cultores Clerici. I
would venture to suggest that in Saxon England
Colidei was formed from cultor Dei, but that a
word not unlike in sound in the Celtic tongue
(though philologically distinct and originally of a
somewhat different sense) was used to designate
the same class of persons.
Whatever obscurities still surround both the name
and the office of the Culdees, of one thing we may be
certain — there is not the smallest shred of evidence
for the notion that the Culdees differed from the rest
of Christendom at the period either in regard to faith
or in their views of Church government.1 They pro
bably originated in an attempt to aim at the higher
perfections of an ascetic life. They next were united
in small corporations, resembling Canons Regular else
where, and were occupied mainly in maintaining the
round of Divine service, together with certain duties
connected, in some places, with the exercise of
1 The notion is not yet wholly exploded, but it is no longer
entertained by the better informed among Presbyterian writers.
Thus, in the first volume of a recent history, entitled The Church
of Scotland, Past and Present, edited by Dr. R. H. Story,
Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Glasgow,
Dr. James Campbell writes (p. 216), " Some have maintained
that they [the Culdees] had an Eastern origin, and were our
earliest evangelists. It has been more generally believed that
Columba was their founder ; that their form of Church govern
ment was characterized by the exclusion of bishops and
adherence to primitive Presbyterian parity ; that they rejected
transubstantiation and other errors of later ages ; and preserved
their purity of doctrine and worship till swept away by the
advancing tide of Romanism. In the light of recent inquiries
these opinions are seen to be erroneous."
DECAY OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 207
hospitality to strangers. In the widespread decay of
Church discipline in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh
centuries, the Culdees fell away, and at the time of
the great revival of Church life under St. Margaret,
their name is associated not with rigour but with
laxity.
208
CHAPTER XIII.
THE FAITH AND RITUAL OF THE CELTIC CHURCH —
THE TONSURE AND EASTER COMPUTATION.
WHEN we come to deal with the religious beliefs
and practices of the Celtic Church in Scotland, we
are met at the outset by the fact that extremely few
literary remains of the Celtic period have in the long
lapse of years come down to us in safety. The
writings of Adamnan, abbat of lona (679-704), are
almost the only documents that supply information
on these subjects from what we may perhaps venture
to call a Scottish source ; while the Book of Deer
(which will be described hereafter1) is the solitary
liturgical relic of the Celtic Church in Scotland. But
happily it is made plain on investigation that we are
• entitled to rely with confidence on documents of
distinctively Irish origin as expressing a faith and
describing ritual and disciplinary observances which
are substantially — indeed, perhaps we might say
absolutely — identical with what was professed and
what was practised in the Celtic churches of northern
1 See p. 248.
RITUAL OF THE CELTIC CHURCH. 209
Britain. It is in respect to the religious beliefs and
usages of the people as with Celtic art and Celtic
architecture. Scotland cannot be studied apart from
Ireland. Just as the copious riches of Irish archae
ology constantly help us to supply with confidence
what is insufficiently expressed, or only hinted at
obscurely in the comparatively scanty relics of Celtic
civilization in Scotland, so the more abundant literary
remains of Irish Christianity help us to understand
what is vague or uncertain in the few written docu- \
ments that can claim a Scottish birthplace. The /
literary documents of the Celtic Church in Ireland /
may be as reasonably appealed to for the illustration
of the faith and religious ceremonial of the Celtic
Church in Scotland, as the writings of English
Churchmen might in an after age be cited to illustrate
the faith and usages of any of the daughter churches
of the colonies. Indeed, none of our colonial
churches, even with the facilities of communication
afforded by modern civilization, is able to maintain
such constant and such close intercourse with home
as did the Church of the west coast of Scotland with
the neighbouring shores of Ireland.
On the great fundamental doctrines of the Christian
creed there is no reason to suppose that any of the /
Celtic churches varied from the faith of the Church \
catholic. We learn indeed on respectable authority,1
that in the year 429 the errors on the subject of
Original Sin, Free Will, Grace, and Predestination,
which are designated by the name " Pelagianism," were
1 Prosper of Aquitaine.
O
2IO THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
introduced, if they had not already made way, among
the British Christians. But the heresy was not allowed
to spread itself unchecked. The British ecclesiastics
sought aid from the neighbouring Church of Gaul,
and St. Loup, bishop of Troyes, with St. German,
bishop of Auxerre — the latter, perhaps, as deputed by
the bishop of Rome, were sent to controvert the
heretical teachers. Yet, though in a remarkable public
discussion the assertors of the catholic doctrine
obtained, amid general applause, a triumphant victory,
the erroneous views seem to have spread. In 447
St. German is again besought by ortKodox Britons
to come to their aid, and on this occasion he is said
not only to have vanquished his Pelagian antagonists
in argument, but to have caused them to be banished
from Britain. Whether the trouble caused by
Pelagianism extended to the British Church in the
north, it is impossible to say; but the hold of this
error in any part of Britain was brief, and on its
extinction no further complaints are made as to
doctrinal errors of a grave kind existing in any of the
Celtic churches of the islands.
No documents of the ancient Celtic Church surpass
in interest the writings of St. Patrick, the apostle of
Ireland. At the present day there is probably no
competent scholar who doubts the genuineness of the
Confession and the Epistle to the Subjects of Coroticus.
Both the external and internal evidence in favour of
the prevailing belief is overwhelming.1
1 Those who desire to see the subject ably'discussed should
consult Todd's St. Patrick and Stokes' Ireland and the Celtic
ST. PATRICK'S 'CONFESSION.' 211
For myself I can say that no literary monuments
of antiquity have ever impressed me with a more
satisfying sense of their genuineness. Dealing with a
country and period, the study of which has been
rendered highly embarrassing by the imaginative
combinations, inventions, cross-lights, and fanciful
colouring of subsequent hagiologists and historians, we
eagerly seize upon these authentic relics. The view
of religion and of society which they present may, it
is true, be rather narrowly restricted, still we have the
happiness of being assured of the truth and reality
of what little is told us.
In the early part of the Confession, Patrick makes a
profession of his faith in respect to the doctrine of
the Holy Trinity, which, though not in express terms
" homoousian," leaves us no reason to question that
as regards the central doctrines of the Christian Creed,
the faith received by the Irish Scots was that of the
Catholics as distinguished from the Arians. And
indeed, at the date when the Confession was written—
that is, in St. Patrick's old age — and for those for
whom he wrote, there was probably no need to be
more precise. Patrick, acknowledging God's wonder
ful goodness towards him, signifies that no other
recompense (retributio) can be made to God than to
Church, pp. 25 sq.; also the article "Patrick" by the same writer
in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography, where
the more curious student will find abundant references to earlier
writings on the subject. Dr. Skene, referring to the Confession
and the Epistle to Coroticus, writes: "These documents we
accept as undoubtedly genuine " (Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., p. 20).
See ante p. 33.
212 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
exalt Him and declare Him before every nation
under heaven, and so he proceeds to state "that
there is none other God, nor ever was, nor shall be
hereafter, save only the Lord, the Father unbegotten,
without beginning, from whom is all beginning,
upholding all things :
" And His Son Jesus Christ, whom we acknow
ledge to have been always spiritually with the
Father, before the beginning of the world ; begotten
in an ineffable manner before all beginning. And
by Him were made things visible and invisible. And
being made man, and having overcome death, He
was received into heaven unto the Father. And He
[the Father] hath given to Him all power, above
every name, of things in heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth, that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and God. Whom
we believe, and we look for His coming, who is ere
long to be Judge of quick and dead, who will render
to every man according to his works.
" Who hath shed forth in us abundantly the gift of
the Holy Ghost, the pledge of immortality, who maketh
the faithful and obedient to become the sons of God
the Father, and joint-heirs with Christ, whom we con
fess and worship one God in the Trinity of the most
holy Name."
There is now preserved in the Ambrosian Library
of Milan an Irish MS., written some two hundred
years after the death of St. Patrick. It formerly be
longed to the great monastery of Bangor, in the county
Down. It is known as the Antiphonary of Bangor,
'ANTIPHONARY OF TSANGOR.' 213
and contains, beside hymns and prayers, etc., a Creed
which, though declaring the same great truths, uses
language differing in a remarkable way from the
Niceno-Constantinopolitan symbol, and, indeed, I may
add, from all other known forms of the Creed.1 It
deserves a place here, and runs as follows : —
" I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Invisible,
Maker of all created things visible and invisible.
" I believe also in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our
Lord, God Almighty, conceived of the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary ; He suffered under Pontius
Pilate ; Who, having been crucified and buried,
descended into hell ; on the third day He rose again
from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sat on the
right hand of God the Father Almighty ; from thence
He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
" I believe also in the Holy Ghost, God Almighty,
having one substance (imam habentem substantiani)
with the Father and the Son. [I believe] that there
is a holy Catholic Church, remission of sins, com
munion of saints, resurrection of the flesh. I believe
[that there is] life after death, and eternal life in the
glory of Christ. I believe all these things in God.2
Amen."
There is something very striking in the emphatic
assertions with the recurrent phrases, " I believe in
Jesus Christ . . . God Almighty •." "I believe in the
1 The text of this MS. has been recently (1893) produced in
photographic fac-simile, and edited by the Rev. F. E. Warren
for the Henry Bradshaw Society.
2 " Hcec omnia credo in Deum." The sense of this last
clause is not free from ambiguity.
214 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Holy Ghost, God Almighty." While the phrase "of
one substance," ordinarily applied to the Second Per
son of the Blessed Trinity, is here applied to the
Third Person, and in the form " having one sub
stance with the Father and the Son." There is no
faltering in this Creed's assertion of catholic theology.
The declaration, too, that God is Himself " invisible,"
though the Creator of all things visible and invisible,
may have been found desirable in a country where, as
it would seem, the worship of the powers of nature
(e.g. of the sun) 1 at one time had place.
The two unquestionably genuine writings of St.
Patrick are documents of no great length; and the
special objects with which each was written have
nothing to do with dogmatic controversy. Accordingly,
it is not to be wondered at if from them we are able
to derive but little information as to many topics on
which we would now gladly have some guidance.
But the fact of their undoubted genuineness makes us
eagerly prize every smallest gleam of light they throw
on a period so deeply enveloped in gloom. On the
doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, we have seen there is
a full and express testimony, and we have no reason
to question that, on the other fundamental doctrines of
the Faith, St. Patrick did not differ from the general
belief of his time.
The Confession was written when the author was well
advanced in years (cap. i., sec. 3), and its main object
1 See Confession, cap, v. , sec. 25. " That sun which we behold,
at God's command rises daily for us, — but it shall never reign,
nor shall its splendour continue ; but all even that worship it,
miserable beings, shall wretchedly come to punishment,"
GENUINE WRITINGS OF ST. PATRICK. 215
seems to have been to vindicate himself for having un
dertaken the missionary episcopate of Ireland. It is the
utterance of an humble, earnest Christian, whose heart
was aflame with the love of souls. The writer is pain
fully alive to his deficiencies in literary culture, and
the barbarous and ungrammatical Latin of his writings
justifies his self-abasement in this respect. The
Epistle to the CJiristian Subjects of Coroticus consists
of an indignant protest against the greed and cruelty
of that prince,1 who harried the Irish coast, slaughtered
many, and carried off into slavery great numbers of
Christian men and women.
The personal portrait, which the unconscious touches
of the writer bring out stroke by stroke before our eyes,
constitutes the main charm of both writings. But
their extreme preciousness as genuine productions of
their age (being, as Sir Samuel Ferguson (Patrician
Documents), has pointed out, " the oldest documents in
British history ") has caused them to be subjected to
a minute and even microscopic scrutiny. For our
present purpose there is not much to be gathered ;
but we learn the following particulars :— (i) We find
Patrick claiming to be constituted " bishop in
Ireland" (Corot., cap. i., sec. 2). (2) He personally
ordains clergy, as we learn in more passages than
one, but nowhere more clearly than when, asserting
that all he had done for Ireland he had done with
out reward, he declares, " When the Lord ordained
everywhere clergy through my humble ministry, I
dispensed the rite gratuitously" (Confess, cap. v., sec.
1 See p. 34.
2l6 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
22). It would seem from other authorities that the
' practice of the Presbyters present laying on hands
together with the bishop at the ordination of a Pres
byter, was not perhaps in early times the practice of
the Celtic Church.1 (3) The rite of Confirmation was
administered by St. Patrick. This, too, he would have
his readers understand, was done gratuitously (Ibid.).
(4) Both the Confession and Epistle to Coroticus abound
in quotations from the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments, and, apart from direct quotations, the
texture of his diction is in a large measure woven out
of biblical language ; but, like most contemporary
writers, he quotes somewhat loosely. (5) Like many
contemporary writers, he cites, as divinely-inspired
Scripture, passages from the Apocrypha or deutero-
canonical books. (6) He quotes from an earlier Latin
version or versions, not from the revised version of St.
Jerome. (7) He testifies to the attraction and rapid
spread of the monastic system. Both men and women
(some of the latter being of high rank) eagerly sought
to devote themselves, under conventual rule, to the
service of God (Confess., cap. iv., sec. 18, etc.). Here
are the beginnings in Ireland (Ninian had already intro
duced the system into northern Britain) of what was,
during the whole of the Celtic period of our Church's
history, its dominating characteristic. The monastery
was everywhere the home and seminary of Christian
learning, the centre of Christian work, and every
where, as it were, the military base of operations
against the powers of heathendom. There is not one
1 See Adamnan, Vita Colutnb., lib. i., c. xxix. But see p. 255.
USAGES OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 21 7
name of eminence in the history of Celtic Christianity
that is not closely connected with the monastic life.
(8) Though baptism is frequently referred to in the
writings of St. Patrick, it is curious that there is no
direct reference to the Eucharist. We find, how
ever, the statement made (Confess., cap. v., sec. 21),
that St. Patrick was careful, despite the offence he
gave, to return to their owners certain personal orna
ments cast upon " the altar " by " religious women
and virgins of Christ."
It is to the more abundant writings of Adamnan
that we turn for the fullest information as to the eccle
siastical usages of the ancient Scottish Church. These •
writings, however, it must be remembered, picture to •
us the state of things at a period removed by a
hundred years from that of St. Patrick. Dr. Reeves,
late bishop of Down and Connor, in his edition of
Adamnan's Life of St. Colurnba, has, by his splendid
wealth of learned illustration, made comparatively easy
the task of subsequent inquirers ; and in what follows
I have, like every recent historian, made free use of
his labours.1
It is well first to reiterate that, speaking generally, ^
there is no evidence of the Celtic Church entertaining
in a definite manner any doctrine differing from the (
prevailing faith of the rest of Western Christendom at
the time. More especial prominence may be found
given to certain notions, but substantially the faith of
1 I would also express my indebtedness to the very valuable
work of the Rev. F. E. Warren, entitled The Liturgy and
Ritual of the Celtic Church, Oxford, 1881.
2l8 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
• Christendom was one. There would be no necessity
to emphasize what might be naturally expected, were
it not that the early Scottish and Irish Church has
been sometimes represented as possessing a doctrinally
purer and more primitive Christianity than was to be
found at the time elsewhere. Take, for example, the
Eucharist. Nowhere in Christendom in the sixth
century do we find the formulated doctrine that after
wards came to be known as Transubstantiation. But
in the Church of St. Columba the opinion and senti
ment in regard to the Eucharist, so far as we can
gather them, were substantially the same as may be
found elsewhere at the same period. The notices in
Adamnan are doubtless historical, not dogmatic, but
the language used by him is just what might be ex
pected from contemporary writers on the Continent.
Thus the priest " stood before the altar" to " conse
crate the sacred oblation " (lib. iii., c. 18). Elsewhere
the "sacred mysteries" "the mysteries of the sacred obla
tion" " the sacred mysteries of the Eucharist," are terms
employed. And the priest who consecrates is said
Christi corpus conficere (lib. i., c. 35). These expres
sions were the common language of Western Christen
dom at the time of Adamnan, and indeed at an earlier
time than his. It is worth observing, however, that
so far as the notices in Adamnan throw light on the
subject, we have no reason to suppose that there were,
ordinarily, any celebrations of the Eucharist except on
the Lord's Day and festivals. A daily celebration had
been established in many parts of Christendom long
before this date ; and it is remarkable that in a
IMPORTANCE OF BAPTISM. 219
monastery where there were several priests a daily
mass does not appear to have been said.
As might be expected from the character of the
narrative of the missionary labours of the community,
the notices we have of Baptism are in connection A
with converts from heathenism. The importance
attached to the administration of the rite may be
gathered from the following narrative (which is
interesting also in other respects), recorded in the
Life (lib. iii., c. 15). "At another time, when the holy ••
man was journeying beyond the dorsum of Britain,
near the lake of the river Nisa (Loch Ness), he was
suddenly inspired by the Holy Spirit, and said to the
brethren who accompanied him, ' Let us hasten to
meet the holy angels who have come from the highest
regions of heaven to bear away the soul of a heathen,
and are waiting there for our coming that we may
baptize him before he dies, who has preserved his
natural virtue (naturale bonuni) through a long life
even to extreme old age,' And, when he had said
this, the aged saint hurried on in front of his com
panions as fast as he could till he came to the
district called Airchart-dan [? Glen Urquhart], where
he found an old man, Emchat, who, hearing the word t
of God preached by the saint, believed, and was
baptized, and immediately in joy and confidence
passed to the Lord, with the angels who had come to
meet him. His son, Virolec, also believed, and was
baptized with his whole house." The recognition by
Columba of the preservation of his " natural goodness "
by the old heathen man is a very interesting feature,
220 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
With this passage may be compared a very remark
able utterance to be found in the Senchus Mor
("Great Antiquity"), a very remarkable compilation
professing to embody St. Patrick's reform and ratifi
cation of the Brehon Laws: "Now the judgments of
true nature which the Holy Ghost had spoken through
the mouths of the Brehons and just poets of the men
of Erin, from the first occupation of this island down
to the reception of the faith, were all exhibited by
Dubhthach (Chief Bard of Ireland) to Patrick. What
ever did not clash with the Word of God, in the
written Law, and in the New Testament, and with
the consciences of the believers, was confirmed in the
laws of the Brehons by Patrick." ! There is in this
something that reminds one of the large views and
spiritual insight of Justin Martyr and Clement of
Alexandria, with respect to God's revelation of His
will to the pagan philosophers.
Let us now consider some of the more peculiar, or,
at least, more markedly emphasized, features in the
current religious belief of the days of St. Columba.
Prominence given to the agency of Demons and good
Angels. — The extraordinary prominence given to the
agency of good and evil angels in the Christian
thought of the time cannot fail to strike the modern
reader of Adamnan. And the same feature appears
also in the lives of others of the Celtic saints. We
are not here concerned with the question of the
reasonableness of such prominence ; but we observe,
as an interesting phenomenon, that particular aspects
1 Ilealy's Insnla Sanctorum et Doctorum, p. 53.
AGENCY OF DEMONS. 221
of truth and particular phases of belief assume at
some periods a magnitude and a proportion that at
other periods would, to say the least, seem to have
an air of exaggeration, if not of caricature. For
Adamnan the evil spirits are not only tempters offering
their seductions to the human heart, but they possess
power of a physical kind over other creatures of God.
Thus demons, by their art, can raise tempests and
agitate the sea. Indeed, legions of demons are de
scribed in one place as raising a violent tempest and
causing a great darkness, while it was yet day (lib. ii.,
c. 35). They can take possession of a well, and render
its water noxious (lib. ii., c. 10). They can make
blood have all the appearance of milk ; and so, on one
occasion, they enabled a sorcerer, till detected by the
saint, to pass himself off as one who would perform the
miracle of drawing milk from a bull (lib. ii., c. 16).
They at times are visible to the bodily eyes (lib. i.,
c. i). They are " very black " in colour (lib. ii., c. 9).
They on one occasion made an assault in great
numbers upon the saint and the monastery with "iron
spits/' The saint fought against the countless hordes
single-handed for the greater part of the day, and
finally, with the help of the good angels, expelled them
from the island. But perhaps the most entertaining
and instructive of these stories is found in the chapter
(lib. ii., c. 15) entitled, " Concerning the expulsion of
a devil who was lying hidden in a milk-pail " ; and
to taste the genuine flavour of the story, we must hear
it as it is told us by Adamnan. "At another time, a
certain youth, Columbanus by name, grandson of
222 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Brian, coming suddenly, stopped at the door of the
little hut in which the blessed man was engaged in
writing. This same youth, returning from the milking
of the cows and carrying on his back a vessel full
of new milk, asked the saint to bless his load, as he
was wont. Then, the saint, being at some distance
away, raised his hand and made the saving sign (/. e.
of the Cross) in the air, which thereupon was moved
by a violent concussion, the bar which fastened the
lid was thrust back out of the two holes in the
sides of the pail and shot away to a distance, the
lid fell to the ground, and the greater part of the milk
was spilled. The young lad lays down the pail, with
the little milk that remained, on the ground, and falls
as a suppliant on his knees. But the saint, addressing
him, said, ' Rise up, Columbanus ; thou hast acted
negligently in thy work to-day, for thou didst not put
to flight the devil that was lurking in the bottom of
the empty pail before the milk was poured in, by mark
ing it with the sign of the Cross of our Lord. And
now, as thou seest, being unable to endure the virtue
of that sign, he has been made to tremble, the whole
pail being shaken, and has spilled the milk in his
hasty flight. Bring, then, the pail nearer to me^that I
may bless it.' And this being done, the half-empty
vessel which the saint had blessed was at the same
moment found miraculously filled ; and the little that
had remained at the bottom had quickly increased
under the benediction of his holy hand till it reached
the brim."
This story has not been recounted with a view to
VISITS Oi< ANGELS. 223
raise a smile, but to illustrate the beliefs of the period
with which we are dealing.1 Again, on more than
one occasion St. Columba sees demons contending in
the air with the angels for the souls of persons
recently deceased (lib. iii., cc. 7, n, 12, 14, etc.).
And our views of the spirit world are enlarged by the
story of an affectionate wife, who, having died a year
before, joined in mid-air with the holy angels in a fight
with demons for the soul of her husband who had just
died. This conception, no doubt, would have been
less startling at a time when women were not unknown
to engage in military service.
If evil angels figure largely in the narrative, so also
do the good angels. They appear to Columba again
and again ; and, though ordinarily invisible to others,
they were on one occasion detected in numbers by a
prying monk, who had acted the spy upon the saint's
privacy (lib. iii., c. 17). On another occasion, while
Columba was writing in his little cell in lona, he was
heard to cry suddenly, " Help ! help ! " The two
brothers who were in attendance at the door at once
inquired what was wanted, and were told that it was
only that he had ordered the angel of the Lord, who
was standing among them, to save a brother monk who
was at that moment falling from the roof of a great
house at Deny in Ireland, and who, by the aid of
the angel " flying with the speed of lightning," was
caught before he reached the ground (lib. iii., c. 16).
1 In a Manuale Exordsmorum (Antuerpioe 1626), issued with
the approbation of the bishop of Antwerp, which lies before me,
there is to be found an " Exorcismus pro lacte," and an
" Exorcismus pro butyro."
224 '1'HE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
At another time, when, contrary to his wish, the saint's
life was prolonged in answer to the prayers of the
churches, the angels who had come for his soul were
stopped on the other side of the sound, and stood
there upon a rock, anxious to fulfil their mission.
In an atmosphere of this kind the whole Life is
bathed. It may be that in our day we make too
little of angelic ministrations, and too little of the
power of evil spirits. I shall not discuss the question.
I only note that we live in a world of religious thought
very different from that of St. Columba. And I am
convinced that it is quite as important to understanding
the time that we should know the truth on this
subject, as that we should know it upon questions
concerning the archaeology of tonsures and canonical
hours.
Illustrations of the current belief of the early Celtic
Church could be supplied in abundance from the
records of Irish hagiology. It may suffice to notice
the parallel to the memorable combat in which, after
a long struggle, St. Columba expelled the demons
from lona, that is afforded in the story of St. Patrick
as recorded in the Tripartite Life, when "on Crua-
chan-aichle, the modern Croagh Patrick, he had his
last encounter with the demons of Ireland. When to
the violent ringing of his bell, accompanied by the
recital of psalms, and the invocation of the sacred
Name, his adversaries were unwilling to yield, he
flung the bell with all his might into the thickest of
their ranks, and thereby spread such consternation
among them, that they all fled with precipitation into
INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 225
the sea, and left the island free from their spiritual '
aggressions for seven years, seven months, and seven '
days." l Whether the demons were ever so long '
absent from Ireland, may indeed be questioned ; but
we need feel little hesitation in believing that they >
have been very active at various times since then in <
that " most distressful country."
As for Scotland, it is sad to remember that the \
terror which darkened life during the witch-finding
and witch-burning post-Reformation times shows us
the vigorous survival of the belief in the powerful
agency of demons, while the counterbalancing faith
in the constant ministry of the heavenly angels was
an inappreciable factor in popular thought.
Invocation of Saints. — Adamnan leaves us in no
doubt as to the fact that in his time the aid of
the prayers of departed saints was sought in the
Scottish Church. In Columba's lifetime we have
evidence to show that his prayers were believed to
be especially efficacious. Persons at a great dis
tance were convinced in their distress that if St.
Columba's prayers could be had, Heaven might be
more successfully approached (lib. ii., cc. 5, 41).
Similarly, St. Columba, in peril at sea, called on
St. Canice, then in Ireland, to aid him by his prayers
(lib. ii., c. 12). Columba himself, on the memorable
evening preceding his death, declared : " These,
O my children, are the last words I address to you,
that ye be at peace and have unfeigned charity among
yourselves ; and if you follow the example of the
1 Dr. Reeves' St. Patrick's BM and Shrine.
P
226 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
holy fathers, God the Comforter of the good will
be your helper, and 7, abiding with Him, will
intercede for you " (lib. iii., c. 24). It was not
unnatural then that, after his death, they would
remind him of his promise. This they seem to have
done by the somewhat remarkable plan of placing, on
a special occasion, some of his books and garments
upon the altar, and by the invocation of his name.
And God granted to the holy man, we are told, an
answer to their requests (lib. ii., c. 46). Again, a
plague is stopped in answer to the prayers of St.
Columba, now departed (lib. ii., c. 47). We have
instances of even reproaches directed against St.
Columba, when he seemed slow to answer the suppli
cations addressed to him (et quodammodo quasi accusare
nostrum Columbam ccepimus, lib. ii., c. 46).
Prayers for the Dead. — u If there is one practice in
the Christian Church," wrote the late Dean Plumptre,
"not specifically recognized in the New Testament,
which can claim the sanction of primitive antiquity,
it is that of praying for the souls of the faithful
departed." And there is no reason to suppose that
the Celtic Church differed from the rest of Christen
dom in this particular. But, while the evidence is
clear for later dates, what the reader is most struck
with in the account of St. Columba's life is silence
where we should have expected references to the
practice. It was not, as I think, till the notion of
Purgatory had been given definiteness and importance
by Pope Gregory the Great (590 — 604), that the
somewhat vague and general prayers for the "rest
PkAYEkS FOR THE DEAb. 227
and refreshment" of the faithful dead, which had i
been given a place in the Liturgies, developed into the '
expression of desire for the relief of souls suffering
pains in the other world. Columba's labours were all
but concluded before the writings of Gregory could
possibly have made their influence felt in Ireland and
Scotland. Notions which St. Augustine had thought
permissible to be entertained as a private opinion
became consolidated and given a precision and
definiteness unknown before the time of Gregory. It
may be somewhat of an over-statement to say, with
Shrockh and Hagenbach,1 that Gregory was " the
inventor of Purgatory," but it was his writings, and
more especially the Dialogues, with their visions
exhibiting the state of the departed, that gave the
main impetus to the belief that souls could be re
lieved from purgatorial pains by the prayers of the
faithful.
Now, with one exception (if indeed it can be regarded
as an exception), we find, so far as I can recollect, not
a single example of prayers for the dead in Adamnan's
Life of St. Columba. We are here considering the
question merely from the historical standpoint; and
it is of interest to notice the general view that is
presented throughout the book. In one place a soul
is represented as being carried off to " the place of
suffering " (ad loca pcenaruni), but it will perhaps be
thought that a sufficiently clear interpretation of the
expression is to be found by observing that it is
demons who carry off this soul, and that it is the soul
1 History of Christian Doctrines, vol. ii. , p4 97.
228 THE CELTIC CHUKCrf IN SCOTLAND.
of one who is suddenly slain in the midst of his guilt
(lib. i., c. 30). In another place (lib. i., c. i),
Adamnan speaks of the saint seeing the souls of the
righteous being carried to the highest heaven (ad
sumnia cwloruni). Accounts of deaths are frequent,
and it is certainly noteworthy that there does not
seem to be any expression that would lead us to
suppose that Columba had before his mind a place of
purgatorial pains. The argument from silence is
doubtless always hazardous, but the hazard diminishes
in proportion wilh the likelihood that the belief, if it
existed, would have expressed itself.
The one possible exception is found in book iii.,
chap. 13, which is entitled, "Of the vision of holy
angels who carried to heaven the soul of the bishop,
St. Columban Mocu Loigse." The title is con
temporary, be it observed, with the text, which on
account of its importance may be transcribed.
" One morning, while the brethren were putting on
their sandals and preparing to go to the different duties
of the monastery, the saint, on the contrary, bade them
rest that day and prepare for the holy oblation, order
ing also that some addition should be made to their
repast, such as was given on the Lord's Day. * It
behoves me to-day,' said he, ' although I be unworthy,
to celebrate the holy mysteries of the Eucharist out
of veneration for that soul which this last night
ascended to paradise beyond the starry spaces of the
heavens, borne amid choirs of holy angels.' And
when he had spoken the brethren did as they were
bid, and rested that day according to the command*
STORY OF ST. COT.UMT.A. 22Q
ment of the saint ; and the sacred mysteries l having
been prepared, they accompany the saint to the
church in their white robes (albati) as on festivals
(quasi die solemn). But it came to pass that when in
the course of chanting the offices that customary
prayer was being sung in which the name of St.
Martin is commemorated, the saint said suddenly to
the chanters, when they came to the place where the
name occurs, ' To-day ye must chant for St. Colum-
ban, the bishop.' Then all the brethren who were
there understood that Columban, the bishop in
Leinster, the dear friend of Columba, had passed to
the Lord."
Let us see now what is to be learned from this
story. First, we may notice, in passing, that it is
suggested by the narrative that the Eucharist was not
celebrated daily. Secondly, if "paradise " stood by
itself, we might be the more ready to understand it of
the intermediate state of the blessed dead, but the
heading of the chapter, which is of the same date
as the text of the earliest manuscript of the Life,
interprets it as " /leaven." Thirdly, it would seem as
if the saint desired that the name of Columban should
be substituted for that of St. Martin, or, more
probably, placed before it in the prayer. Now, if we
could be sure what this prayer was, all would be clear.
But, so far as I know, it was not the practice in the
West at this period, in those prayers of the mass
in which the names of acknowledged saints occur, to
1 I read with the thirteenth-century manuscript, in Archbishop
Marsh's library, misferiis for mimsteriis.
23° THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
pray for them, but rather to pray to God that we
might be aided by their intercessions. Dr. Bernard
MacCarthy, in his learned discussion on the Stowe
Missal, in the Transactions of the Royal Irish
Academy^ has, I think, suggested the truth when
he considers that "the customary prayer" (consueta
deprecatio) is the prayer known as Cum omnibus,
which declares that the spiritual sacrifice was offered
to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by the
celebrant for himself and for his people [or the monks
of his monastery], for the whole body of the Church
catholic, " and for commemorating" (pro commemo-
rando) the venerable patriarchs, -'prophets, apostles,
martyrs, and all saints, " that they may vouchsafe to
earnestly entreat our Lord God for its" Then
follows, in this ancient Irish missal, a list of the Old
Testament worthies and prophets — St. John the
Baptist, St. Mary the Virgin, the Apostles, and other
early saints, and "likewise," it goes on, "the bishops,
Martin, Gregory, Maximus, Felix, .... etc."
Observe that in this, the most ancient of all Irish
missals, the name of Martin comes first among the
bishops ; so that I fancy we may not unreasonably
picture to ourselves Columba, after the words " Item
episcoporum" stopping the chanters, and uttering the
words transcribed above.
The point of the story seems to me to be that St.
Columba treated the day as the festival of the saint.
He at once placed his departed friend among the
glorified saints. The celebration is held " out of
1 Vol. xxvii. ; see pp. 156 and 217.
A FESTIVAL-MASS. 231
veneration" for the soul departed, and the chanting
pro Cohunbano episcopo is to be understood as a
chanting pro commemorando Columbano episcopo, his
prayers being sought for the worshippers, and not the
worshippers' prayers being offered for him. In a
word, it was, as we would say in our present language,
rather a festival-mass than a requiem-mass. This may
seem a great departure from primitive usage ; but I
am only endeavouring to interpret historically an
historical document.
What has been said gives us no warrant for
supposing that there was any omission from the
Liturgy of the customary prayer " for all who rest in
Christ," that God would grant them "a place of
refreshment, light, and peace." Indeed, in our oldest
Irish missal — the Stowe Missal — which some would
place as early as not very long after the death of St.
Columba,1 we find this prayer.2 And, grammatically,
it is doubtless applicable to the saints, the long lists
of whom, including St. Mary the Virgin, precede it."'
If this latter view be the true one, we have here both
prayers for the departed saints, as in some of the
1 "The second quarter of the seventh century," Dr.
MacCarthy. Mr. Warren (Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic
Church, p. 199) believes, on liturgical grounds, that the oldest
part of the manuscript cannot be placed earlier than the ninth
century. So that one cannot speak with confidence as to in
ferences dependent on its date.
- Mr. Henry Rradshavv discovered that the binder of the
Stowe Missal altered the true pagination, which will be found
correctly in Dr. MacCarthy's paper in The Transactions of the
Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxvii.
3 See also in the Stowe Missal the mass pro mortuis phiribus.
232 THE CELTIC CHURCH TN SCOTLAND.
liturgies of the early Church, and also the prayer that
these saints would entreat God for the worshippers.
Mr.1 Warren (Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church,
p. 105) has cited from Walafrid Strabo's Life of St.
Gall, the apostle of Switzerland, a passage which
illustrates the practice of the Celtic Church less than
twenty years after the death of Columba. When St.
Gall was aware that St. Columbanus, of Luxenil,
" had passed from the miseries of this life to the joys
of Paradise" (A.D. 615), he ordered that the sacrifice
of the mass should be offered " for his rest." In the
meagreness of records of Scottish origin, it may be
permitted us to cite the scribe's colophon in the
Reichenau codex of Adamnan's Life of St. Columba,
" an early eighth century MS.": "Whoever reads
these little books of the virtues (? miraculous powers)
of Columba, let him entreat the Lord for me,
Dorbbene, that I may possess eternal life after
death." Similarly, Adamnan himself added to the
end of his book, Concerning the Holy Places, an
entreaty for the readers' prayers for the " Divine
clemency " on behalf of the " holy priest Arculf,"
who dictated it ; and that for himself, " the wretched
sinner who wrote it," they would entreat " Christ, the
Judge of the world." This last phrase reminds one
of the request of St. Paul on behalf of Onesiphorus,
that he might " find mercy of the Lord in that day "
(2 Tim. i. 18). Again, some of the early Irish monu
mental epigraphs request prayers for the departed.1
1 See Warren, loc. (it., where other illustrations will be found.
The colophons of the scribes, though suggestive of the belief in
PRAYER TO ST. COLUMBA. 233
As regards direct invocation of the saints, it seems
to me that Mr. Warren (Liturgy and Ritual, etc., p.
108) has somewhat overstated the case in alleging
that " there are no instances recorded of the modern
practice of praying to departed saints." Confining
ourselves to Adam nan's Life of St. Columba, we are
told that it was " with psalms and fasting and the
invocation of his [Columba's] name " that the monks
of Adamnan's time besought on one occasion a
favourable wind for their voyage; and on another,
when the wind was adverse, the words of a direct
address to him are recorded thus : " Does our
injurious delay please thee, O saint ? Hitherto we
hoped that some comfort and help in our labours
would have been afforded by thee, through God's
favour, since we thought that thou wert held in great
honour by God." The Litany of Saints in the Stowe
Missal may date from the eighth century. From the
evidence adduced, it would seem probable that at the
time of Adamnan the transition to direct prayers
addressed to the saints had begun in the Columban
Church.
Features of interest in the Ritual of the Celtic CJutrcJi.
— We may now turn to notice some of the more
remarkable features of the ritual of the Celtic Church.1
The bread used in the Eucharist was, contrary to the
prevailing practice in the West at the time, sometimes,
the efficacy of prayers for the dead, cannot ordinarily be cited
as conclusive proofs.
1 For other examples, fuller details, and authorities, see Mr.
Warren's valuable work.
234 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
if not generally, unleavened. St. Gall, according to his
biographer, Walafrid Strabo, was accustomed to use
unleavened bread. But instances of a similar variation
from the prevailing practice are also to be found in the
history of the Anglo-Saxon Church. I am not satisfied
that this usage prevailed generally in the Celtic Church.
The mixed chalice, we may say with much con
fidence, was universal in the Celtic Church. Our
earliest Irish missal, already referred to, supplies (in an
appended tract in the Irish tongue) ritual directions
for the mixture, which was to be accompanied with
certain prayers. It is worth noticing the peculiarity
that the water was first placed in the chalice.1 The
same tract supplies mystical interpretations of the
symbolism of the water and of the wine added to it.
As regards the mixed chalice, the universal practice
of the early Church was naturally adhered to.
In the Irish tract in the Stowe Missal we find most
elaborate directions for the fraction, and the placing
of the particles in a cruciform shape upon the paten,
together with explanations of the symbolism. We find
nothing exactly like it in any known missal, but features
resembling^ it may be found in the Eastern and the
Spanish liturgies. It would seem that the cross
thus made was to be surrounded at Easter with a
circle — ''circuit wheel" — of other portions, and Dr.
MacCarthy reminds us in this connection of the
familiar form of Celtic monumental crosses. And it is
minutely prescribed from which portions of this figure
1 MacCarthy, in the Transact. Royal Irish A fad., vol. xxvii,,.
p. 245.
CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST. 235
various classes of persons were to be communicated.
Thus, if we may follow the guidance of Dr. MacCarthy,
the celebrant communicated himself with the portion
in the centre of the cross ; bishops were communi
cated with portions from the upper part of the shaft ;
priests from the left arm of the cross ; the clergy below
the rank of priests from the right arm ; anchorites
from the lower part of the shaft; "clerical students "
from the upper left quadrant of the surrounding circle ;
" innocent youths " l from the upper right quadrant ;
" penitents " from the lower left quadrant ; married
persons and first communicants from the lower right
quadrant.
Not less artificial is the regulation of the various
numbers of the portions which, according to this Irish
tract, were to be consecrated on various occasions ;
and not less fanciful the reasons assigned for these
numbers. Thus, five for ordinary days, " in figure of
the five senses " ; seven on the festivals of saints and
virgins (except the chief), "in figure of the seven gifts
of the Holy Spirit "; eight for martyrs, "in figure of
the octonary of the New Testament " (/. e. the four
Gospels, Acts, Pauline Epistles, Catholic Epistles, and
Apocalypse); nine on the Lord's Day, "in figure of
the nine folks of Heaven, and of the nine grades of
the Church " ; ~ eleven for the Apostles, " in figure of
1 Does this phrase point to the practice of communicating
infants ?
- The commonly-received grades of the Heavenly Hierarchy
need not be recounted. In " the nine grades of the Church,"
perhaps the writer concurred with Isidore in adding bishops and
clerks to the seven now reckoned in the Roman Church.
236 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
the imperfect number of the Apostles after the scandal
of Judas " ; twelve on the day of the commemoration
of the Last Supper, " in remembrance of the perfect
number of the Apostles " ; thirteen on little Easter
[Low Sunday] and on the Feast of the Ascension, in
figure of Christ with the Twelve, and (as is wortli
observing in explanation of how an uncertain number
of communicants was to be dealt with) this is added,
" at first. They are to be distributed more minutely
in going to Communion." " The five, and the seven,
and the eight and the nine, and the eleven, and
the twelve, and the thirteen — they are five [and]
sixty together, and that is the number of parts which
is wont to be in the Host of Easter and of the
Nativity, and of Pentecost ; for all that is contained
in Christ." l How far this complex, highly artificial,
and, as most persons will think, unedifying ritual
prevailed, we are unable to say,- and when it made
its appearance it is impossible to judge till some
definite pronouncement has been generally accepted
by paleographers upon the date of this portion of
the volume known as the Stowe Missal. As it
stands, however, it will serve to disabuse the minds
of those who would regard the Celtic Church as
characteristically marked by a simple and primitive
plainness of ceremonial. The reader must not sup
pose that the ritual directions here transcribed are
the mere outcome of the wanton fancy of the Celts
of Ireland. In a tract attributed to Ildefonsns, who
was bishop of Toledo from 657 to 667, we find
1 MacCarthy, loc. fif., \\ 253.
THE EUCHAR1ST1C DREAD. 237
some curious resemblance to the practices enjoined
in Ireland. We find that the " breads " were to be
arranged in certain forms and their number was to
vary with the festival. Thus, on Christinas Day, at
each of the three masses, five portions were to be
arranged in the form of a cross, and twelve others in a
circle around it, the five to signify Christ and the four
evangelists, and the surrounding circle the choir of
angels. At Easter, at each of three masses, five and
forty in the shape of a cross. At Pentecost, also five
and forty arranged as a cross in the middle of a square
(symbolizing the heavenly Jerusalem). On the feasts
of the Ascension and Transfiguration, the same num
ber and form as at Christmas. On Sundays and
festivals of the saints only five, in the form of a cross*
The centre " bread" was to be somewhat larger than
the rest as signifying " the Lamb in the midst." The
resemblance between these regulations and those of
the Irish tract are obvious, and one may reasonably
suspect a more than accidental connection between
the two.
The Greek Church at the present day, in the office
of the Prothesis (or preparation of the elements before
the celebration of the Liturgy), has an elaborate
arrangement, on the " disk " or paten, of portions of
the bread. With some few modern additions the rite
is ancient. These portions are meant to symbolize
" The Holy Lamb " in the midst, St. Mary the Virgin,
the prophets, the Apostles, Basil and the great oecu
menical doctors, Stephen and other martyrs, Antony
and other ascetics, Cosmas and Damian and other
238 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
unmercenary saints (/. e. those who took no reward
for their miracles of healing, etc.), Joachim and
Anna, and all saints, the Emperor of Russia, the
Holy Synod, living bishops, etc., private persons of
the living whom it is desired to remember, private
persons of the dead whom it is desired to remember.1
While another symbolical arrangement devised on a
different principle exists in the Mozarabic Missal.-
Joint Consecration of the Eucharist by Presbyters. — •
A custom which, it would seem, is absolutely unique
is brought to our notice by an incident in the life
of Columba, as related by Adamnan (lib. i., c. 35).
The story is related by us in full in another place
(p. 252) for another purpose, and the reader is referred
to it. A second priest was invited by the celebrant,
if only of the rank of a priest, to join in the con
secration, at least as regards the manual acts (pattern
frangere]. But a bishop, when celebrating, took the
service alone. This practice seems to be the exact
reverse of a usage known elsewhere in the West, that
presbyters should join both in the words and manual
acts with a bishop when celebrating the Eucharist.
In the present Roman service for the ordination of
priests, the rubric directs the bishop at the celebration
to raise his voice somewhat, so that the priests who
1 The existing rite is exhibited in Rajewsky's Euchologion der
Orthodox- Katholischen Kirche, Wien, 1861. The reader may
also consult Neale and Littedale's translations of the Liturgies of
S.S. Mark , James ', etc,, p. 179.
'2 The Mozarabic arrangement may conveniently be found
pictured in Mr. Hammond's Liturgies, Eastern and Western,
P- 341.
COMMUNION IN BOTH KINDS. 239
have been just ordained may be able to repeat all
the words with him, and especially the words of
consecration, which should be said at the same
moment by the ordained priests and the bishop.
And as late as the fifteenth century, on Holy Thurs
day at Chartres, six priests, standing in line at the
altar with the bishop, three on his right and three on
his left, sang the mass together with him, and also
with him performed all the enjoined ceremonies.1
Communion in both kinds. — Had we no specific
evidence as to the practice of the Celtic Church,
we might reasonably believe that it did not differ
from that of the rest of Christendom. And there i
is no question that down to the twelfth century the '
Communion was administered in both kinds to the j
laity. But we possess in the documents of the Celtic
Church which have come down to us, definite and
independent evidence establishing the fact. Thus,
to take first our solitary Scottish liturgical fragment,
the Book of Deer, from an orifice for the Communion
of the Sick, we read first the notice, " Here give the
sacrifice to him," then the benediction, or words of
delivery, "The body with the blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ be health to thee for eternal life and
salvation"; then immediately follow the words,
" Refreshed with the body and blood of Christ let
us ever say to Thee, O Lord, Alleluia, Alleluia. . . .
I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the
name of the Lord. Alleluia, Alleluia." Both
1 Warren (Liturg. and Kit* of Celtic Church, p. 129), who
gives his authorities.
240 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
elements, as Mr. Warren remarks, "seem to have
been administered at once," the bread having been
dipped in the wine. This method, technically known
as " induction," had obvious advantages in com
municating the sick. It prevails at the present day
in the Greek Church for the general communicating
of the laity, a spoon being used for conveying the
sacrament to the mouth of the recipient. In the
West, in 675, the practice was condemned at the
Council of Braga, because our Lord had delivered
to His Apostles the bread and the wine separately,
but notwithstanding the practice spread. The later
history of the usage does not concern us.
In the Irish Antiphonary of Bangor we meet
the following Communion formulae : " We have re
ceived the body of the Lord, and we have drunk
His blood; we will fear no evil, for the Lord is
with us. . . . Take ye this sacred body of the
Lord and the blood of the Saviour, unto life ever
lasting. Alleluia."1 And "Refreshed," etc., as in
the Book of Deer. In the Book of Mulling (eighth
century?) the rubric for the administration runs:
"Then he is refreshed with the body and blood."
In a ninth-century Irish MS. at St. Gall,- we
have the Communion anthem, " Come ye, eat My
bread and drink My wine which I have mixed for
you-"; and the post-communion, "We give Thee
thanks, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, Everlasting
God, who hast satiated us with the communion of
the body and the blood of Christ." In the Stowe
1 Compare Hymn 313 (from Antiphonaty of Bangor) in Hymns
Ancient and Modern. " '2 See Warren, loc. at., p. 179.
THE TONSURE. 241
Missal the Communion anthem appears, " Eat, O
My friends • alleluia ; and drink ye abundantly
(inebriamini\ O most beloved ; alleluia." All these
fall in with, if they do not absolutely demonstrate,
the existence of the Communion in both kinds.
The study of the Irish liturgical remains and of
our solitary Scottish liturgical relic of the Celtic '
period, the Book of Deer (see p. 248), leaves no doubt
that it was from Gallican, not Roman sources, the '
liturgical worship of the Celtic Church had its origin.
A thorough treatment of the subject would involve
us in liturgical technicalities unsuitable to a work
such as this. But ample proof will be found adduced
by Mr. Warren in his Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic
Church.
This may not be an inconvenient place for saying
something of two of the more important subjects
of controversy between the Irish and the Roman
parties.
The Tonsure. — Among the subjects of lively con
troversy between those who represented the Roman
mission in Britain and the adherents of the Celtic
Church, was the form of the ecclesiastical tonsure.
The question does not appear to have been raised
by the wise Augustine of Canterbury ; but subse
quently it roused the most violent animosities between
the two parties. The Roman tonsure consisted in a
circle, more or less wide, on the top of the head
being made bare with the razor, while a fringe of hair
surrounded it like a crown, which was mystically
regarded as symbolizing the Saviour's crown of thorns.
Q
242 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
The Celtic tonsure, as I understand it, like the
Roman tonsure, showed a fringe of hair in front,
but the top of the head was not shaved beyond a
line drawn from ear to ear, so that, viewed from
behind, there was nothing that marked the ecclesiastic
or monk from the ordinary layman. Recent writers
seem to concur generally in thinking that the Celtic
tonsure showed the whole of the front of the head
as clean shaved ; but the original authorities do
not seem to me to bear this out. The passage in
the Abbat Ceolfrid's Letter to Naiton, king of the
Picts (A.D. 710), preserved by Bede,1 seems very
distinctly to say that, viewed in front, there seemed
to be a crown, but that when you looked at the
back of the head you discovered that the " crown,"
which you thought you saw, was cut short, was not a
real and complete " crown." It is plain that if the
whole of the hair on the front of the head was shaved
off, there would not be anything resembling a corona
of hair. The shorn part of the head seems to have
had no special significance for most of the old writers,
except as being essential to bring out the significant
part — the surrounding fringe of hair, which symbolized
the sufferings of our Lord.2
The Celtic tonsure seemed to the Roman party
to be a maimed piece of symbolism; it exhibited
1 Hist. Ecf/.j lib. v.} c. 22.
- If this view is correct, the figure of St. Columba depicted
in the St. Gall manuscript of Adamnan's Life of the saint,
with a frontal fringe of hair, may possibly not be, as Bishop
Reeves supposes, a mistake into which a ninth-century copyist
might fall. See Historians of Scotland, vol. vi., p. cxiv,
ROMAN AND CFXTIC TONSURES. 243
only a truncated " crown " to those who could look
all round.
The words of Ceolfrid are so precise and vivid that
they seem to me to quite outweigh what some would
infer, perhaps too hastily, from a passage in an epistle
attributed to the writer known as Gildas (5 70?),*
who says that the Romans asserted that the Celtic
tonsure had its origin in that of Simon Magus, whose
tonsure extended only to all the anterior part of the
head from ear to ear.2
The matter is of little moment ; but if we try to
picture to ourselves the ancient Irish and Scottish
monks, it of course makes a difference in the image
we create before the mind's eye.
It is a question of more interest how the difference
between the two tonsures originated. If monasticism
was introduced into Ireland from the "great monas
tery " of Whithorn in the north, there can be little
doubt that a tonsure of the Roman shape came with
it. — The Greek tonsure, or shaving the whole head,
called "the tonsure of St. Paul," if once introduced
and prevailing, could never, I imagine, have become
transformed into the Celtic tonsure, while it is not
difficult for any one who is familiar with the gradual
transformations of ecclesiastical vestures to under-
1 The section of the second epistle which refers to the
tonsure is corrupt in its text, and is regarded by Haddan and
Stubbs (Councils, vol. i., pp. 108 sij.) as of a later date than
Gildas, though prior to the general adoption of the Roman
tonsure.
- The text of the same passage which Archbishop Usher cites
from a different MS. omits the mention of "all the anterior
part of the head." Antiq. Brit. Eccl., p. 479, edit. 1687.
244 TTIE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
stand how the Roman tonsure may have been in the
course of years curtailed at the back of the head, and
so changed into what I take to be the Celtic form.
I cannot think that there is the slightest evidence for
supposing, with Prof. Rhys(CV///<r Britain > p. 72), that
the Celtic tonsure was a revival of the practice of
the Druids.1
At the time when the controversy between the
Roman and Celtic ecclesiastics on the subject of the
shape of the tonsure began to wax warm, the Roman
party declared that the tonsure of their opponents
was derived from Simon Magus, while their own
was that of Simon Peter, the chief of the Apostles.
But this opprobrious language had, so far as we know,
no historical foundation, and was, no doubt, only one
of the amenities so common in excited religious debate.
The Celtic tonsure was sometimes further reviled by
attributing its origin to the swineherd of the Irish
king, Laoghaire.1 But this story is as valueless as the
former.
When we remember the bitterness of controversy
between the Church party and the Puritans in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, about the use of
1 As I differ from the weight of recent authority on the form
of the Celtic tonsure, I think the passage of Ceolfrid on which I
have laid stress should here be given. '' Quce [tonsura] aspectu,
in frontis quidem superficie, coronce videtur speciem proeferre ;
sed ubi ad cervicem considerando perveneris, decurtatam earn
quam te videre putabas invenies coronam." In Bedet lib. v.,
c. 22.
~ This name is pronounced Lcary. Todd's Life of St. Patrick,
p. 150, note. The story which may account for the statement as
to the tonsure is given by Rhys (Celtic Britain, p. 73), from
Stokes' Goidelica.
THE EASTER CONTROVERSY. 245
the " corner-cap," or when we recall more recent heated
discussions (sometimes attended by mob violence) on
the wearing of the black gown or surplice in the pulpit,
we may perhaps be more inclined to extend our charity
to those who found " a principle at stake " in a matter
apparently so trivial as hair-cutting. On the part of
the Irish and Scotch, there was a natural attachment to
a practice which they had derived from their predeces
sors in the faith, holy men whose memories were held in
the most profound veneration. And further, it might
not unreasonably rouse the indignation of the Celtic
party if it were sought arbitrarily to impose upon them
an observance, the acceptance of which might be
construed into a badge of subjection to a foreign
authority. Their own mode of hair-cutting had been
handed down to them from the past ; why, they
might reasonably ask, should they give it up ? Why
should they submit to the requirements of those who
possessed no right to command? We can easily
understand how good and independent-minded men
might argue thus. The student of English history
knows well it was not for a matter of twenty shillings
that John Hampden resisted the imposition of the
ship-money.
The Easter Controversy. — The same spirit of loyalty
to their forefathers in the faith entered largely into
the firmness with which the members of the Celtic
Church resisted the pressure exerted by the Roman
party that they should adopt the mode of calculating
the fall of Easter which prevailed in other parts of
Western Christendom. In this controversy, however,
246 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
the strangers had more reason on their side than in
the matter of the tonsure.
In past times there were mistakes among students
as to the nature of the difference on this subject
between the Celtic and the Roman Churches. Some
erroneously imagined that the Scottish Church fol
lowed the practice of the " Quartodecimans " in the
second century. But this is now known to be an
entirely incorrect view. It is enough for our purpose
to state that while the " Quartodecimans " celebrated
Easter on the fourteenth day of the first Jewish
month, without regard to what day of the week their
Easter-day, thus calculated, might happen to be, the
Irish or Scottish Church always observed Easter upon
a Sunday. The difference between the Celtic church
men and the rest of the West at the time of the
controversy arose out of the fact that the Celtic
Church calculated Easter by the aid of a cycle which,
while retained by them, had been abandoned else
where as being less astronomically correct. An
explanation in detail would involve many elaborate
astronomical considerations that would be out of
place here.1
"The important facts," as Mr. F. E. Warren says,
" are these — that before the Council of Nice the practice
of the British harmonized with that of the Roman
1 The curious may consult Prof. Stokes' Ireland and the
Celtic Church, pp. 149 — 155 ; Haddan and Stubbs' Councils,
vol. i., p. 152, Appendix; the article " Easter" in Smith and
Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities; Usher's Brit.
Eccles. Antiq., cap. xvii. ; Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., pp.
7—io.
THE EASTER CONTROVERSY. 247
Church, the most ancient Roman table for Easter
agreeing with that of the British Church ; but that,
owing to its [subsequent] isolation from the rest of
Western Christendom, the Celtic Church had never
adopted the various alterations and improvements
which, on astronomical and not on theological grounds,
had been from time to time accepted by the Continental
Church" (Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p.
64). It was not till A. D. 463 that the Roman Church
adopted the cycle in the form which Augustine of
Canterbury and his followers desired to press upon
their Celtic brethren. Both Scotland and Ireland had
received Christianity at an earlier date, and the old
method of calculating Easter had had in these
countries many long years of possession when it was
first sought to oust it in favour of the more accurate
system. It is not improbable that if the Roman
missionaries had confined themselves to methods of
calm exposition and reasoning, the British Churches
would on this point have given way long before they
did so in fact. But violent invective did not lead to
the result desired. As the Celtic tonsure was styled
by the opprobrious name of " the tonsure of Simon
Magus," so the offensive and utterly inapplicable title
of " Quartodecimans " was affixed to the supporters of
the Celtic Easter. The evils of protracted and em
bittered controversy must in justice be laid chiefly at
the door of the Roman party. Men of the Celtic race
are certainly not slow in resenting anything that savours
of assumption ; yet we need not seek to offer excuses
for the uncharitableness of such Celtic ecclesiastics as
248 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
would refuse to eat, not only at the same table, but
even under the same roof with their brethren of the
Roman party.1
ADDITIONAL NOTE.
4 THE BOOK OF DEER.'
The solitary liturgical relic of the Celtic Church in
Scotland is to be found in the Book of Deer, now
deposited in the University Library at Cambridge.
As described by Dr. John Stuart, in his admirable
edition printed for the Spalding Club (1869), it consists
of eighty-six folios, of small but rather wide 8vo. form,
and contains the Gospel of St. John and portions of
the other three Gospels ; a fragment of an Office for
the Visitation of the Sick ; the Apostles' Creed ; and
a charter of King David I. to the clerics of Deer,
which is situated in almost the centre of the district
of Buchan, in the north-east of Aberdeenshire. The
character of the handwriting has led palaeographers,
like Professor Westwood, to assign the part of earliest
date to the ninth century. Its illuminations and
ornaments are quite of the same kind as those of
many Irish Books of the Gospels. Its connection
with the Coltimban monastery at Deer is unquestion
able, but we have no materials to help us to determine
whether it was the work of an Irish or native (/. e.
1 As was alleged of the Irish bishop, Dagam. Bede, Eccles.
Hist* i lib. ii.} c. 4.
'THE BOOK OF DEER.' 249
Pictish) scribe. The Creed is of the same date as the
Gospels, but the fragment of the Visitation of the Sick
" is in a considerably later hand," while certain entries
of grants of land, written in the vernacular Gaelic,
appear to have been inserted in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries. The liturgical portion of the Book
of Deer, which is very brief, may be found in Mr.
Warren's Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, a
volume more easily accessible than Dr. Stuart's. The
full-page representations of the Evangelists are of the
usual ostentatiously grotesque kind, which leave little
doubt that the artists deliberately avoided any attempt
at realistic portraiture. Three of the four figures show
a curious square ornament upon the breast, apparently
suspended by straps from the neck. This ornament
may not improbably represent a case in which the
book of each Evangelist's Gospel is preserved (see
p. 319). The figure prefixed to the Gospel of St.
Luke is represented in the frontispiece of this volume.
256
CHAPTER XIV.
THE EPISCOPATE IN THE CELTIC CHURCH.
IT may seem to us, with the enlarged range of early
documentary evidence of late years opened up or
made more generally availabfe, that it would be im
possible for any candid inquirer to entertain the view
long prevalent in this country, that the ancient Church
in Scotland was " Presbyterian " in its organization.
But even apart from the misleading influence of party
sentiment, it was in fact not difficult for writers in the
sixteenth, the seventeenth, and indeed, as one may
add, the eighteenth century, to misunderstand, or to
draw unwarrantable inferences from the documents
that were most ready at hand. Such Scottish writers
as John of Fordun (see p. 43) and the very able and
distinguished John Major (1469 — 1 5 50) l were ecclesi
astics of the Roman Church. It was not unnaturally
supposed that their statements might on such a subject
be accepted without question. These statements were
1 See the Life of 'Major ; by Mr. /K. J. G. Mackay, prefixed to
Major's History of Greater Britain (1892), among the publications
of the Scottish History Society.
EVIDENCE OF THE EPISCOPATE. 251
repeated by George Buchanan, and by many subse
quent historians, almost to our own day. The notions
so long prevailing popularly in Scotland were thus
very natural, more especially as they fell in with
Presbyterian opinion and sentiment.
When we come to examine the primary evidence for
ourselves we find that the very first authentic testimony
to Christian missionary efforts in Scotland, that of Bede
(Eccles. Hist., lib. iii., c. 4), represents Ninian as a
bishop. The authority of the Life of St. Kentigern is,
as we have seen, of comparatively little value ; but such
as it is, it declares Kentigern to have been a bishop.
But it is to that store-house of authentic facts, the Life
of his contemporary, Columba, that we turn for the
most trustworthy information on the subject. And as
to the existence of the Episcopate, as distinct from the
Presbyterate, in the time of Columba, there can be no \
possible doubt. In his time, and in the missionary •
Church founded by him, it is absolutely certain that
bishops existed as a distinct order, possessing powers <
and privileges which were not shared in by presbyters, i
It has been already pointed out that, as the more
abundant remains of ancient Irish architecture and
Irish art should be utilized for the true understanding
of the ancient architecture and art of Celtic Scotland,
so the copious ecclesiastical documents of Ireland
cannot with reason be overlooked in any attempt to
gain a correct view of the condition of the contem
porary Church in Scotland, which was its offshoot.
But I prefer, as sufficient for our purpose, confining
ourselves, at the outset, to an examination of the in-
252 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
valuable work, Adamnan's Life of the great Scottish
missionary, with a view to see what may be learned
from that source alone on the question before us.
Two incidents recorded by Adamnan are deserving
of careful examination. The first story runs as follows :
" Concerning Cronan the Bishop.1 At another time
a certain pilgrim from the province of Munster came
to the saint (/. e. Columba). This man in his humility
did all that he could to disguise himself, so that no
one might know that he was a bishop ; but this could
not be hidden from the saint, for on the next Lord's
Day, having been commanded by the saint to conse
crate the Body of Christ, as the custom was, he calls
to him, the saint, that they might together, as two
Presbyters, break the bread of the Lord.'2 Thereupon
the saint went to the altar, and suddenly looking
into his face, thus addresses him : ' Christ bless thee,
brother; do thou break this bread alone, according
to the rite of bishops. Now we know that thou art a
bishop. Why hast thou so long endeavoured to dis
guise thyself so that the reverence (veneratid) due to
thee from us might not be rendered?' On hearing
the saint's words, the humble pilgrim was greatly
astonished, and reverenced (veneratus esf) Christ in
the saint. And those who were present in much
amazement gave glory to the Lord" (lib. i., cap. 35).
Here, then, we see a bishop ; we see that his passing
1 This title, which is wanting from some of the later MSS.,
is found in the earliest, the Reichenau, text (known as Cod. A),
attributed by Reeves to the beginning of the eighth century. It
may have been transcribed during the life of the author.
- On joint consecration by Presbyters, see p. 238.
AID THE BLACK. 253
himself off as a presbyter was regarded as a proof of
his humility ; we see that a special reverence was held
to be due to bishops ; we see that bishops celebrated
the Eucharist with a peculiar rite without associating
a presbyter in the act. We see the great abbat,
the founder of the monastery, a man of royal blood,
as being merely a presbyter, giving place to the
unknown stranger from Minister because he was a
bishop.
The second passage from the Life of St. Columba
which calls for special notice in this connection may
now be cited. "The prophecy of the blessed man
concerning Findchan the presbyter, founder of that
monastery in the Ethican land (Tiree), which in the
Scotic tongue is called Artchain. At another time,
Findchan, the presbyter and soldier of Christ (/. e. a
monk), brought with him, in the dress of a cleric, from
Scotia (/. e. Ireland) to Britain, Aid, surnamed the
Black (Aid Dubh, of the Irish records), who was
sprung from a royal stock, and of the race of the
Picts ; and this with a view to his spending some
years with him in his monastery. Now this Aid the
Black had been a man stained with much blood and
had slaughtered many. It was he, too, who had slain
Diarmit, son of Cerbul, by the appointment of God,
King of all Scotia (Ireland). This same Aid then,
after some time was spent in retirement, was, a bishop
having been summoned, ordained a presbyter, although
not rightly (iwn recte\ in the house of the aforesaid
Findchan. Yet the bishop did not dare to place a
hand upon his head unless the same Findchan, who
254 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
loved Aid after the flesh (carnalitcr amans\ would
first place his right hand on his head, in token of
concurrence and approval (pro confirmatione). When
such an ordination as this was afterwards made known
to the saint, he was sore displeased ; and then forth
with he pronounces this terrible sentence upon that
Findchan and Aid who had been ordained : ' That
right hand which Findchan, contrary to the law of
God and the rule of the Church (contra fas et jus
eccksiasticuui], placed upon the head of the son of
perdition, shall presently rot, and, after great pain and
torture, shall be interred in the earth before himself ;
and he shall survive his buried hand many years.
But Aid, who was unwarrantably (indelnte) ordained,
shall return as a dog to his vomit, and become again
a bloody murderer,' " etc. We need not, for our
purpose, relate how the prophecies were fulfilled.
In this story we learn that when it was sought to
ordain Aid, a bishop had to be sent for. We learn
that the ordination was by the laying on of the
bishop's hand. We learn that, probably knowing the
infamous repute of Aid, the bishop would not venture
to ordain him till Findchan, head of the monastery,
had committed himself to formal approval by laying
on his hand. If Findchan believed that he could by
his own act have ordained his friend of ill-repute,
there would have been no need of calling in an
unwilling bishop.1 We may add that it appears that
1 It may be worth mentioning that the name of this Findchan
is, according to Reeves, preserved in Kilfinichen% a parish in
the island of Mull.
ORDINATION OF AID. 255
ordination to the Presbyterate was by the laying on
of hands, and that perhaps here, as elsewhere in the
West at this time, and as still preserved in the ordinal
of the Church of England, presbyters joined with the
bishop in the act. The bishop's insisting on Findchan's
first placing his hand on the head of Aid may perhaps
be expressed in words: "Let me see that you, the
head of this monastery, are going to take your share
in the ordination of this man, so that I shall not have
to bear the blame alone."
It will be observed that no punishment is recorded
to have been inflicted on the ordaining bishop. And
the explanation may probably be found if we assume
that the bishop was a member of the community in
Tiree, and would have been under the pressure of
monastic obedience to the head of the house. This
leads us on to notice the fact that it was the general
rule that the heads of Columban monasteries should
not have higher rank than the great founder, the
presbyter Columba. | But the episcopal offices belong
ing to ordination had to be performed, and so we
very commonly find a bishop among the members of
the community. The Scottish Church of the Colum
ban period was mainly, if not universally, monastic ;
and these two facts brought about the unusual
arrangement that bishops (as members of the com
munity) were subject to the jurisdiction of the abbat,
or head of their house.
In any country ministered to in things spiritual by
secular clergy, the position of the bishop is one of
superiority, both as regards the "right of order" and
256 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
the " right of jurisdiction." In a country where
religion is represented by the monastic system, while
the bishop's "right of order" remains untouched, his
"right of jurisdiction" is affected, unless it happened
that the head of the monastery (as was not unfrequent
in Ireland, and not unknown in Scotland) was himself
of episcopal rank. Bede took note of the anomaly in
the Scottish Church. Writing of Hii (lona), he says,
" It was the usage that that island should always
have for its ruler (rectorem) an abbat who was a
presbyter, to whose rule both the whole province and
even the bishops themselves, by an unusual arrange
ment, should be subjected, in accordance with the
example of their first teacher, who was not a bishop,
but a presbyter and monk " (Ecc/es. flist., lib. iii.,
c. 4).
A very striking characteristic of the Celtic Church,
whether in Scotland or Ireland, was its monastic form.
The land was held for Christ by a number of fortresses
or garrisons, of which metaphor we are reminded by
the ram part -circled monasteries.1 The comman
dants of these fortresses, more especially in Scotland
(as generally established by Columban monks), were
more frequently presbyters than bishops. In a wild,
unsettled, and uncivilized country, a diocesan organiz
ation can never be much more than a paper organiz
ation — a scheme, it may be, beautifully designed,
but incapable of being fully realized for many long
years. The wonderful successes of the Irish missions
may well suggest the query whether the planting down
1 See p. 124.
POSITION OF BISHOP. 257
in a heathen country of communities of ardent
workers under the guidance of a capable head, possess
ing large powers of action and control, who might be
(in accordance with what is at once the primitive and
the prevailing and general order of the Church) a
bishop, would not, even now, be more likely to be
effective than the methods generally followed in our
modern missions.
The position so commonly occupied by the bishop
in relation to the abbat of the Columban monasteries,
though differing from the prevailing usage of the
Christian Church, and to a large extent contrary to
the design for which episcopacy was primarily estab
lished, does not stand in history wholly without
parallel. The practice of raising priests to the
episcopal order though they possessed no sees, was '
not peculiar to the Celts. As early as the fourth
century, as we learn from the historian Sozomen, two
of the monks of Edessa, whose names he records, '
were raised to the episcopate, not as having juris
diction, but " for the sake of honourable distinction."
He adds that they were consecrated in their own
monasteries (Eccles. Hist., lib. vi., c. 34). In the
monastery of Mount Sinai we learn that in the eleventh
century there were five hundred monks subject to an
abbat, and having their own bishop. In the West the
great Italian monastery of Monte Cassino, and the
monasteries of St. Martin at Tours, and of St. Denys
at Paris, possessed an arrangement by which one of »
the monks was consecrated bishop and was ready to
perform any episcopal act required, though possessing
258 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
no jurisdiction.1 In the great abbey of Fulda, the
most important and influential monastery in mid-
Germany — indeed perhaps one might say in the whole
land of German-speaking people — ecclesiastical juris
diction was, up to 1752, exercised over the wide
extent of territory attached to the abbey by the
presbyter abbat, but one of his subject monks was
invested with the episcopal character, and performed
such offices as the discipline of the Church confines to
the episcopate.2
An English churchman is in our day further helped
to understand the subordination of the bishop to the
abbat by recalling the not unfrequent practice of ap
pointing bishops who have retired from their sees in the
colonies to offices in English cathedral establishments.
Such a bishop holding an archdeaconry or canonry is
subject to the dean in his cathedral, but he is still a
bishop. In respect to the organization of the early
Irish Church, of which the Scottish Church of Columba
was only a colonial offshoot, Dr. Todd 3 seems to
have correctly stated the case that the most remarkable
feature was the extraordinary multiplication of bishops.
" There was no restraint upon their being consecrated.
Every man of eminence for piety or learning was
advanced to the order of bishop, as a sort of degree,
' or mark of distinction. Many of them lived as
• solitaries or in monasteries. Many of them established
1 The authorities for these statements will be found in Dr.
Todd's St. Patrick, pp. 55—57.
a Benedict XIV. erected the territory of Fulda into a bishopric
in the year 1752. Ada SS., Octob. viii., p. 165.
3 St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, p. 27.
MULTIPLICATION OF BISHOPS. 259
schools for the practice of the religious life and the
cultivation of sacred learning, having no diocese or
fixed episcopal duties ; and many of them, influenced
by missionary zeal, went forth to the Continent, to
Great Britain, or to other then heathen lands, to
preach the Gospel of Christ to the Gentiles." Having
no sees and no endowments, it was easy for every
considerable monastery to possess a bishop for the
performance of such ecclesiastical offices as were
confined to the highest order of the ministry. The
famous double monastery of Kildare, with communities
of both monks and nuns under the headship of St.
Brigid, possessed a bishop. An early biographer1
of the great abbess declares how that when the
monastery had been founded she came on consider
ation to the conclusion " that she could not be
without a high priest to consecrate churches and to
settle the ecclesiastical degrees in them" (i. e. to ordain
presbyters and other clergy). She selected for this
purpose a solitary of high repute for piety, and
arranged that he should " govern the Church with her
in episcopal dignity, that nothing of sacerdotal order
should be wanting in her churches." There may be
here somewhat of the colouring of a later age, but
there is no reason to question the fact that the ;
monastery of Kildare possessed a bishop, subject, in
his monastic relations, to the abbess.
In Ireland, bishops not (infrequently were heads of
monastic houses, and in Scotland there seem to be at
1 Cogitosus, whom Dr. Graves (Bishop of Limerick) places in
the seventh, but Petrie and Todd in the ninth, century.
260 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
/ least two instances, Lismore and Kingarth, where a
bishop was chief of the monastic establishment ; but,
as we have seen, it became a rule of the Columban
monks that the ecclesiastical rank attained by the
founder should not be surpassed by his successors.
It may be really true (see p. 89) that it was by
what some would call an accident that Columba had
not been made a bishop. The devout minds of his
followers may rather have regarded the occurrence as
revealing the Divine will. The superior dignity of
the episcopal rank may also have been one of the
reasons why those who aimed at perfecting the virtue
of humility would shun the dignity. But however
this may be, that bishops as distinguished from
presbyters were well known in the Columban
monasteries there cannot be the slightest doubt.
Among the verses of the bard Dalian Forgaill,
Columba' s contemporary, may be found lines describ
ing the company that attended on the saint when he
went to the Council of Drumceatt (see p. 103).
" Forty Priests was their number :
Twenty Bishops noble, worthy.
For singing psalms, a practice without blame,
Fifty Deacons, thirty Students."
I see no reason to question this statement. It shows
us the three orders of the Christian ministry. The
bishops are numerous; and, without laying much
stress on the poetic effusion, the epithets of honour
are applied to the bishops. One may notice in
passing that the Diaconate seems to have been
something more than, with ourselves in modern times,
PREROGATIVES OF A BISHOP. 261
a mere short probationary period before the priest
hood.
To sum up, then, what may be inferred from the
sources of information at our disposal. The Bishop i
in the Columban Church, as a member of the monastic
house, was subject to his abbat. But he possessed
certain rights and prerogatives that were never
infringed by presbyters. There is not a particle of
evidence that any but a bishop was ever permitted, '
or ever attempted, to confer holy orders.1
The straits to which the exigence of their position
has driven some controversialists, may be sufficiently
illustrated by citing a case which has been much
relied upon to show that the power of ordination was
exercised by presbyters in the Columban Church.
The story of Aidan's mission to Northumbria has
been already told (p. 159); but it is necessary, in
order to appreciate the supposed force of the argu
ment formerly alleged by Presbyterian writers, to have
before us the exact words of Bede (Ecdes. Hist, lib.
iii., c. 5). The historian, after relating how King Oswald
had requested that a bishop (antistes] should be sent
to his kingdom from the province of the Scots, tells
how the story ran that the first person sent in response
to the request had returned to lona, and declared in
an assembly of the elders (in conventu senioruni) his
1 Even in the mediaeval Church of Scotland (and the practice \
is known elsewhere), a bishop was sometimes a canon in his own \
cathedral, and in that capacity subordinate to the dean. Thus, \
at Aberdeen, according to the Cathedral Statutes of 1256, the
bishop was one of the thirteen canons. See Grub, Ecdes. Hist, of '
Scot., vol. i., p. 334.
262 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
hopelessness of effecting the conversion of such a
barbarous and intractable people as the Angles, and
that Aidan was chosen to undertake the work ; " and
so ordaining him, they sent him to preach" (sicque
ilium ordinantes ad pradicandum miserunt.) Now, in
discussing this passage, it was pointed out, first, that
Bede says "ordaining," not tl consecrating." J But
while it is true that in modern times it is customary
to use the word "consecrate" when speaking of
bishops, and "ordain" when speaking of priests, it is
well known to students of ecclesiastical antiquities
that "ordain" was in former days constantly used of
bishops as well as of the lower orders of the ministry.
It would be easy to fill page after page with examples
from the Latin Fathers and Western Councils of
examples of this use of the word " ordain " ; while, on
the other hand, the word "consecrate" is frequently
used of priests and deacons. It may suffice to quote
the very first words cited by John Morinus in his
well-known work,2 as the very earliest account of
Latin ordinations, "Let the bishop who is about to
be ordained be first examined"; while successive
Pontificals and other ritual books give us such expres
sions as " Prayer for bishops about to be ordained"
" When a bishop is ordained" "The ordination of a
bishop begins thus," " Exhortation to the people when
a bishop is ordained" etc. But what is more pertinent
to our purpose, Bede himself uses the word " ordain "
1 See A Vindication of the Ecclesiastical Part of Sir James
D airy m pie' 's Historical Collections, p. 10 sq.
'-' Commentarius dc sacris ccclesnc ordinationibus, p. 259 sq.
ORDINATION OF BISHOPS. 263
in his accounts of the consecrations of bishops and
archbishops of the Roman communion, of whose
episcopal character, as distinguished from presbyters,
there has been no question. Thus, speaking of St.
Augustine of Canterbury, he writes (lib. i., c. 27), "By
the archbishop of the same city [Aries] he [Augustine]
was ordained archbishop for the nation of the
Angles." Augustine, in turn, " ordained two bishops,
namely, Mellitus and Justus," for London and
Rochester (lib. ii., c. 3). His own successor, Laurence,
he also "ordained" for Canterbury, "lest, upon his
death, the Church, as yet unsettled, might begin to
falter, if it should be destitute of a pastor, though but
for one hour " (lib. ii., c. 4). In a later part of his
work (lib. iii., c. 28) Bede uses the words "con
secrate" and "ordain" without distinction, though
employing "ordain" more frequently.1
But passing from this point in regard to the word
" ordaining," to which perhaps it may be thought
more consideration has been given than it deserves,
we have to examine the second point, viz., that Bede's
account represents those who formed the assembly
of seniors (conventus senioruni] as discussing the
discourse of Aidan, and judging him to be " worthy
1 Bishop Gillan, a learned non-juring divine of the Scottish
Church, who acted as Bishop of Dunblane (1731 — 1735), nas
given the illustrations of the use of the word from Bede, in his
able anonymous pamphlet, S)me Remarks upon Sir James
Dalrymptis Historical Collections, with an Answer to the
Vindication of the Ecclesiastical part of them. Gillan falls into
some errors of his own, but he gives, on the whole, a very
effective reply to Sir James Dalrymple.
264 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
of the episcopate," and as "ordaining" him and
sending him to King Oswald. The question which
arises is — Can we reasonably, with our knowledge
of the existence of bishops, properly so called, in
the Columban monasteries, and of how the laying
on of a bishop's hands was regarded as necessary
for ordination to the priesthood (see p. 253), fairly
interpret the words, "and so ordaining him," in any
other way than as equivalent to " and so causing him to
be ordained " ? The Roman missionaries were ready
enough to dwell on differences, even mere ritual
differences, between the British and Scottish Churches
on the one hand, and their own on the other ; but no
complaint was ever made that the Churches of our
islands had ventured on such a departure from the
universal practice of Christendom as to allow pres
byters to ordain a bishop. Indeed, the argument that
the " seniors " themselves performed the rite might
prove too much even for Presbyterian controver
sialists ; for how do we know that the seniors were
not most of them, or all of them, merely lay monks ?
This mode of interpretation of the phrase reminds
us of Bishop Colenso's method, who, from the direc
tion in Leviticus (iv. n, 12), that "the skin of the
bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his
legs, and his inwards, and his dung, even the whole
bullock, shall he (the Priest) carry forth without the
camp," etc. /seriously constructs the picture of "the
Priest having himself to carry on his back on foot [for
a distance equal to] from St. Paul's to the outskirts of
the Metropolis, the skin, and flesh, and head, and
USE OF THE WORD ' ORDAIN.' 265
legs, and inwards, and dung, even the whole bullock." l
Such are the absurdities to which men are driven by
a resolution to hold by a pre-assumed conclusion.
As the question has, however, been raised, it may
be mentioned that Dr. Bright has collected some
passages where it is beyond doubt that the person
said to ordain^ in reality only caused to be ordained.
Thus the Emperor Otho III., in his decree, writes:
" We have elected and ordained Sylvester as Pope."
Gregory of Tours also uses the word " ordain " of the
action of a king. And it would seem to be similarly
used of Kenwalch, king of the West Saxons.2 Much
more important than any elaborate consideration of
such a familiar figure of speech, is a recognition of
the particular circumstances of the case before us.
Oswald, as is probable, after the death of his father,
had been hospitably received at lona, had been there
instructed in the Christian faith, and had there been
baptized. When he ascended the throne, and asked
that a bishop (antistes) should be sent him by the
Scots, it may surely be presumed that he had learned
at lona what a bishop was, and how much such was
needed in a missionary Church. If there were no
bishops in the Church where he had received his
religious education, it may be well inquired, how came
he to esteem them of importance ? But Aidan was
not sent till he had first received " the grade of the
Episcopate " (Eccks. Hist.^ lib. iii., c. 5). Can we
1 The Pcntateiich and Book of Joshtia Critically Examined,
p. ^40.
2 See Chapters of Early English Church History, p. 134.
266 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
doubt that Bede, who does not scruple to tell us of an
" unusual " subjection of the bishops to the Abbat of
Hy, would have told us of the incomparably more
" unusual " (because absolutely unique) custom of the
Scottish presbyters dispensing with the services of the
bishops who, as he mentions, were among them, and
taking on themselves to ordain a bishop for King
Oswald ?
More space has been given to the consideration of
this incident than it intrinsically deserves. But con
troversialists had, contrary to the whole drift of the
context, pressed a familiar usus loquendi into a literal-
ness that gives the lie to history and to common-
sense.
The character and the extent of episcopal juris
diction has varied in different countries and at different
times. It has been affected by the canons of Councils,
by civil enactments, by the encroachments of monarchs,
by Papal usurpations ; but " the right of order " has
never varied. The question of real importance is,
not whether the Scottish bishops of the Columban
period possessed such diocesan jurisdiction as was
known in later times, but whether they possessed the
exclusive power to confer Holy Orders and convey
the apostolic commission, and were thus essentially
distinguished as a different grade from the presbyters.
History leaves no reasonable doubt as to the answer.
267
CHAPTER XV.
ST. MARGARET OF SCOTLAND.
FOR those who have made no special study in the
obscure and confused period of Scottish civil history
before the close of the eleventh century, some few
historic names have been rescued from oblivion, and
made commonly familiar by the genius of Shakespeare.
Without considering the accuracy of his presentment
of the story, the master's great tragedy has made
every one familiar with the figures of Macbeth, of
King Duncan, and of Malcolm, the son of the mur
dered king.
The death of Duncan has been assigned to the
year 1040. Malcolm, still in early youth, fled south,
and in his exile attained the power of speaking the
language of his future English wife. " He grew up
into manhood under [Edward] the Confessor's benign
protection . . . standing before the Confessor's throne,
consorting with the Confessor's knights, sitting at the
Confessor's table." l
Macbeth (Macbeda) is remarkable as having been
1 Palgrave's History of England and Normandy, vol. iv. ,
p. 311.'
268 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
the only Scottish king who visited Rome. His pil
grimage thither, and the lavish bounty bestowed by
him there upon the poor, has been, conjecturally, con
nected by some modern historians with remorse for
his treacherous slaughter of King Duncan. Bene
factions to his native church are also recorded. The
Register of St. Andrews includes a notice of grants
made by him and his queen, Gruoch— the "Lady
Macbeth " of Shakespeare — to the Culdee hermits of
St. Serfs Inch in Lochleven.
The Malcolm of Shakespeare is Malcolm III., or
Malcolm Canmore * of history. In 1057 he success
fully avenged his father's death, and seated himself
upon the throne of Scotland ; and some ten years
later the record of his life brings before us an interesting
and important point of contact between the histories
of Scotland and England.
The Battle of Hastings (1066) and its outcome, the
establishment of the Norman dynasty, which was the
beginning of a new era for England, exercised also
important influences, direct and indirect, upon the
fortunes of Scotland and the Scottish Church. On
the death of Harold, the leading English nobles, with
the concurrence of the citizens of London and the
Archbishop of York, resolved to raise to the throne
Edgar the ^Etheling, grandson of Edmund Ironside.
The further military successes of William of Normandy
induced the temporary submission of Edgar and his
adherents. But in 1068 a league was formed for the
restoration of Edgar ; and to this end the Earl of
1 That is, " of the Great Head," Cennn-mor.
DECAY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 269
Northumberland and Malcolm, king of Scotland,
agreed to afford military aid. But William was again
triumphant, and Edgar /Etheling, accompanied by his
mother and his sisters Margaret and Christina, fled for
safety to the court of Malcolm. Soon after their arrival
the hand of Margaret was sought by Malcolm, who
was then (as some think) a widower, and after much
reluctance on her brother's part, and also on her own,
due to her desire to devote herself to a life of virginity
in a convent, the marriage was celebrated.1
Previous to this date the Celtic Church in Scotland •
had fallen into degenerate ways, when compared with \
the days of its early fame. Intestine wars and the •
ravages of the Northmen had destroyed all sense of i
security, and checked the growth of those Christian '
labours that demand such sense of security. The early •
fervour of religion had waxed cold ; discipline had
relaxed ; the civil power had largely encroached on
the rights of the Church ; lay usurpations of Church
property were frequent ; 'the marriage or concubinage
of the clergy was not uncommon;- and laymen as
sumed not only the possessions, but dignities and
titles properly belonging to churchmen. Thus King
Malcolm's father, Duncan, is represented as the son '
of the "Abbat of Dunkeld," who was, in truth, a
powerful military chief, with wide possessions, and who '
1 Skene (Celtic Scotland, vol. i., p. 422) places the marriage \
in 1068. Freeman {Norman Conquest, vol. iv., p. 782) argues \
for 1070.
- The common surnames, Mactaggart "son of the priest,"
Macpherson "son of the parson," Macnab "son of the abbat,"
MacPrior, and Mac Vicar have been pointed to in this connection.
270 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
had married a daughter of Malcolm II. Even St.
Margaret's own son, Ethelred, was as a youth lay
"Abbat of Dunkeld."
The disregard of the sanctity of the Lord's Day was
widespread ; certain near degrees of affinity were
regarded as no bar to marriage ; and there were
several strange usages in ecclesiastical order and
ceremonial that naturally surprised and offended the
Saxon princess.
We are so fortunate as to possess a contemporary
account of Queen Margaret's mode of life at her
husband's court.1 The title — the Life of St. Margaret
—is misleading, for it supplies us with no consecutive
biography or connected history of events, but only with
some interesting and graphic pictures, helping us to
conceive with clearness her daily round of duties and
devotions, together with some notices of her last hours.
This account was written at the request of Matilda
("the good Queen Maude"), daughter of Malcolm
and Margaret, and wife of Henry I., king of England,2
by whose marriage the blood of the old Saxon kings
was united with that of the Norman sovereigns. The
writer of the Life was an ecclesiastic who was on terms
1 The Life of St. Margaret is printed by the Bollandists in the
Ada Sanctorum (June 10). This text was reprinted by Pinker-
ton (1789) in his Vitic Antiqiuc Sanctonim, etc., of which, after a
century, a new edition appeared, Lives of the Scottish Saints,
edited by Metcalf (1889). The Surtees Society have printed the
Life (in vol. 51 of their publications) from a different text from
that published by the Bollandists.
- Thus Queen Victoria is a lineal descendant of St. Margaret
of Scotland. The Stuart line enters our Queen's genealogy
through the marriage from another English princess, Margaret
Tudor, sister of Henry VIII., with James IV.
CHARACTER OF MALCOLM. 2)1
of very close intimacy with Queen Margaret, and had
been, apparently, her confessor, and who, with the
almost universal concurrence of scholars,1 is identified
with Turgot, at one time Prior of Durham, and who
subsequently was made Bishop of St. Andrews (Aug.
i, 1109— Aug. 31, 1115).
When at the request of a queen the biography of
her mother was undertaken by a mediaeval ecclesiastic,
it was scarcely possible but that the result should be
a highly laudatory eloge. But making the allowances
needful under the circumstances, one cannot read
the Life of Queen Margaret without being convinced
that it gives us a substantially true account of a good
and pious woman, of much intellectual capacity and
force of character.
From the history of Simeon of Durham,2 we learn
something of the ruthless and ferocious character of
the man who was to be Margaret's future husband.
Just at the time of the arrival in Scotland of Edgar
with his mother and sisters, Malcolm's army was
returning from a terrible inroad into the English
possessions. The sacred territory of St. Cuthbert was
ravaged. The order went forth that none were to be
spared. The old, both men and women, were slaugh
tered, in the language of Simeon, " like swine." In
fants snatched from the breast were flung up by the
1 The Bollandist editor, Papebroch, on the authority of the
MS. which supplied his text, assigns the Life to a contemporary
monk of Durham, named Theodoric. But Fordun cites the book
as Turgot's, and it is assigned to him in the British Museum
text.
'-' Siineonis Dunelm. Opp. (Surtees Society, vol. 51).
272 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Scottish soldiers " in sport " into the air, and caught
upon the points of their lances. Churches and those
who sought refuge in them were given to the flames.
The young of both sexes were dragged in bonds to
Scotland.1 There was no Scottish household so poor
that it might not possess an English slave.. Allowance
no doubt must be made for the hideously cruel
character of warfare at the time ; William of Nor
mandy had set a fearful example. Margaret had
certainly no easy task before her in her efforts to soften
and mould the disposition of this fierce soldier.
The king's devoted affection to his queen is
exhibited by Turgot in one of the most beautiful
passages in the story. " I was astonished, I confess,"
he writes, " at this great miracle of God's mercy, when
I perceived in the king at times such earnestness in
prayer, and, in the heart of a man living in the world,
such compunction for sin." " She taught him by her
exhortation and by her example to pray to God with
heartfelt groanings and tears." '"''There was in him a
sort of dread of offending one whose life was so worthy
of veneration, for he saw that Christ in very deed
dwelt within her; yea, he hastened to obey in all
things her wishes and wise counsels." " With God's
help, she made him most ready to concur in works of
justice, mercy, almsgiving, and other virtues." But
more valuable than these general statements is the
1 Hill Burton writes : " The Scots king swept Northumberland
with a ferocity and cruelty which, beyond all the other bloody
raids of the period, have left this one as a memorable story of
calamity in the English chronicles " (History of Scotland, vol. i.,
P. 375)-
MALCOLM'S DEVOTION TO MARGARET. 273
vivid picture presented to us in the following words :
" Although he was ignorant of letters, he would turn
over and examine the books which she used either for
prayer or study ; and whenever he heard her express
especial affection for a particular book, he too would
regard it with special affection, kissing it and often
touching it with his hands. Sometimes he sent for a
goldsmith whom he would command to ornament the
volume handsomely with gold and gems. And when
the work was finished the king himself would carry
the book back to the queen as a loving proof of his
devotion " (cap. ii., sec. n).
In this connection may be mentioned the only
incident related by Turgot which savours of the
miraculous ; for it is remarkable, and adds to our
respect for the general trustworthiness of the narrative,
that it is singularly free from the supernatural marvels
which corruscate with such brilliance and frequency
in hagiological literature. Among St. Margaret's
treasures was a beautifully-illuminated Book of
the Gospels, adorned with gold and gems. The
figures of the four Evangelists were painted and gilt,
and all the capital letters throughout the volume were
brilliant with gold. One day, through the carelessness
of the bearer in crossing a ford, it fell into the water.
It was long sought, and at last discovered lying open
in the depth of the stream ! The current had carried
away the slips of silk which were inserted to protect
the illuminated capitals. Yet, strange to say, it was
quite uninjured, except for some very slight stains of
damp on the last leaves. "Whatever others may
s
274 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
think," says Turgot, " I believe that this wonder was
wrought by our Lord out of His love for this venerated
queen." I see no reason whatever for supposing, as
Hill Burton (Hist, of Scotland, vol. i., p. 382)
imagines, that Turgot's Life of the queen was written
with the object of obtaining for her an authoritative
recognition "in the calendar of saints." It is sub
stantially a truthful portraiture, singularly free from
vulgar marvels. The recovery and identification a
few years ago of what seems certainly to be the very
volume referred to, in the story above related, is one
of the most curious of the surprises that meet us from
time to time in bibliographical history. Queen Mar
garet's precious " Book of the Gospels" is now one of
the treasures of the Bodleian Library.1
In connection with the credibility of this story,
which Turgot, it will be observed, relates at second
hand, it may be well to recall a remark previously
made on the importance of a study of what we may
call " comparative hagiology." It was the correct
thing for a saint's books not to be injured by water.
Thus, in Adamnan's Life of St. Columba (lib. ii., c.
8), we find how a volume written by the saint after
being for twenty days in the river Boyne was dry and
wholly uninjured. Again, a book of hymns in the
saint's handwriting, after lying in a river from
Christmas to Whitsuntide, was similarly protected.
And in an ancient Irish life of St. Columba, con
tained in the manuscript known as Leabhar Breac,
1 See Appendix III.
MIRACLE OF A SAINTS BOOK. 275
now in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, we
read —
" Three hundred splendid, lasting books
Noble-bright he wrote.
Whatever book, moreover, his hand would write, how
long soever it would be under water, not even one
letter in it would be obliterated." Again, Simeon of
Durham (Hist. EccL Dunelm, lib. ii., c. 12) relates,
with reference to the Lindisfarne Gospels (seep. 183),
that on an occasion of the monk's attempting to cross
to Ireland in the ninth century, the precious volume
fell into the sea, but after three days it was discovered
on the coast of Whithorn, with only a few stains of
water, which it still exhibits. Here, in this last case,
we have the same careful qualification, which might
seem to give an air of truthfulness to the miracle
of St. Margaret's book.1
Margaret was a good mother no less than a good
1 To the remarks here made the following interesting passage
may be added : "In the Annals of Clonmacnois the translator,
Connell Macgeoghegan, has alluded to the belief in Ireland
respecting the peculiar property of St. Columba's MSS. in
resisting the influence of moisture, in which he refers to the Book
of Durrow. ' He, i. e. Columba, wrote 300 books with his own
hand. They were all New Testaments ; he left a book to each
of his churches in the kingdom, which books have a strange
property, which is, that if they, or any of them, had sunk to the
bottom of the deepest waters, they would not lose one letter, or
sign, or character of them, which I have seen tried partly by
myself on that book of them which is at Dorowe (Durrow) in
the King's Co., for I saw the ignorant man that had the same in
his custody, when sickness came on cattle, for their remedy put
water on the book and suffer it to rest therein, and saw also
cattle return thereby to their former state, and the book receive
no loss.'" — Miss Stokes' Early Christian Art in Ireland, p. 20
276 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
wife. The member of the household entrusted with
the charge of her children was authorized and enjoined
to use strictness and even corporal chastisement
whenever it was necessary, and in the result we know
that the pains bestowed on " the godly upbringing "
of her sons and daughters were not in vain. During
the reigns of three of her six sons — Edgar, Alexander,
and David — much was done in many directions
under their favouring care for the well-being of the
Scottish people and the advancement of religion ; and
in the purity of their lives these monarchs contrast
in a favourable way with the prevailing licentious
ness of too many of their contemporaries elsewhere.
Edmund is the only one of her children who is said
to have fallen away for a time from the religious stan
dard set by their mother's example ; but repentance
marked his after life, and its sincerity was testified
by his abandoning a life of pleasure in the world for
the seclusion of the cloister.1 Her two daughters,
Matilda and Mary, were educated in the convent of
Romsey, under their mother's sister Christina, who
was abbess. A question afterwards arose as to the
lawfulness of the projected marriage of Matilda with
the King of England. The archbishop, Anselm, and
a council of prelates at Lambeth examined into the
case, and it was proved that Matilda, though wear
ing the religious habit as a protection from the
licentious violence of the Normans, had never taken
the vows ; and, to the joy of the English people,
she became " the good Queen Maude " of history.
1 Edmund became a monk at Montacute, in Somersetshire.
COURT OF QUEEN MARGARET. 277
The court of Scotland during Margaret's life was
marked by the rare combination of much splendour
and much strictness of manners. The increase of
material prosperity showed itself in the abundance of
rich plate, mostly of gold and silver, that now adorned
the king's table. At the instance of the queen, foreign
merchants brought their wares, hitherto unknown, to
Scotland \ fabrics of divers colours were now pur
chased by the people for their dress, and new fashions
in costume made their way.1 She insisted on a larger
and more dignified retinue attending upon the king
in all his public appearances, and the palace and
court exhibited a magnificence entirely new to Scot
land. Margaret herself thought it her duty to main
tain in all outward forms the state and dignity of the
Queen of Scotland; but her life was, nevertheless,
one of extraordinary religious severity. Turgot
declares that in his experience he had never known
any one, of whatever rank or position, so given to
prayer, fasting, and works of mercy. More especially
did she mark the forty days before Christmas and the
forty days of Lent. We may notice, in passing, that
as early as the seventh century, as we find from Bede
(Eccles. Hist., lib. iii., c. 27 ; lib. iv., c. 30), the forty
days' fast before the feast of the Nativity was prac
tised, at least by the more devout, in England. At
1 Margaret's father, Edward, had been brought up in Hun
gary, and there she herself had been born, and there had spent
her early years, before her father and his family were invited
back to England (1057) by Edward the Confessor. Her notions
of the world and its commerce must have been wider than those
which would naturally belong to a native-born Scottish lady.
278 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
these seasons, the queen, after taking some rest in the
beginning of the night, went to the church, and there
said, first, the " Matins of the Holy Trinity," then, the
" Matins of the Holy Cross," and then, the " Matins
of the Blessed Virgin." Then she began the " Office
of the Dead " ; and after that the Psalter, which,
according to Turgot, she would sometimes on holy
days recite completely even twice or thrice. And
before the celebration of the public mass on holy days
she would have five or six masses sung in her pre
sence. The maintenance of an intelligent attention
throughout such prolonged services we may with con
fidence declare to be impossible ; and the belief in
the efficacy of a mechanical repetition of words
could not fail to be fostered by the laudations freely
bestowed upon such practices as those of St. Margaret.
But for us it is of interest to know what were esteemed
in the eleventh century as the marks and tokens of an
especially devout mind.1
After matins and lauds were finished, St. Margaret,
together with the king, washed the feet of six poor
persons, and gave them alms. She then went to take
some sleep. When it was day she rose and again
1 It may, perhaps, be worth observing that "Hours of the
Holy Cross " was certainly, at a later period, a favourite form
of devotion. At matins, the betrayal of our Lord was com
memorated ; at prime, His mocking ; at tierce, His scourging ;
at sext, His crucifixion ; at nones, His death ; at evensong, His
descent from the Cross ; at compline, His burial. An early
translation, in north-country English, of the York " Hours of
the Cross " will be found in Canon Simmons' Lay Folks Mass
Book (p. 82, sq.\ See, too, Maskell's Momimenta Rittialia,
vol. iii., p. IO sq.
ROYAL WORKS OF CHARITY. 279
devoted herself to prayers and reading the Psalter,
intermingled with such works of charity as the tending
of little orphan children, whom she took — says her
biographer — -on her knee, and fed " with her own
spoon." Three hundred poor people were then
brought into the great hall, and having been seated in
order, the king and queen entered, and in the presence
of only the chaplains and a few others, served the
tables, the king on one side and the queen on the
other, and " waited upon Christ in His poor." The
queen then returned to the church. Then, when it was
time for the queen's own repast, she first waited upon
twenty-four poor persons, who were by her orders
especially attached to the court, and accompanied
her in her various progresses. She was at all times
very sparing in her own food ; but during the fasts of
Lent and Advent her severity with herself was so great
that she brought on a painful ailment, from which she
suffered till the day of her death.
In her manners the queen was bright and animated, but
her mirth never descended to loud laughter. She could
be severe when severity was needed, as the Psalmist
counsels when he says, "Be ye angry and sin not." l
The queen's gifts to the Church were many and
splendid. The church dedicated to the Holy Trinity 2
1 The editor of the Surtees edition of the Life of St. Margaret
tells us this verse is to be found in Ephesians iv. 26, and not in
the Psalms. He was evidently not as familiar with the Psalter
as Queen Margaret or her biographer, or he would have found
Irascimini et nolite peccare at Psalm iv. 5.
2 The interesting Abbey Church at Dunfermline, which in
several of its features reminds one of Durham Cathedral, was
completed by Margaret's son, David I., and dedicated in 1150.
280 THE CELTIC CHUkCH IN SCOTLAND.
at Dunfermline, the principal royal residence, was
erected by her, and she bestowed upon it many gifts,
such as vessels of pure and solid gold for the service
of the altar, and a superb cross covered with gold,
silver, and precious stones. Another magnificent
cross was given to St. Andrews, and her ladies of rank
were constantly engaged in the embroidery of " copes
for the cantors, chasubles, stoles, altar-cloths, and
Other ecclesiastical vestments and ornaments." It
may be noticed that the embroidery with gold wire
or thread of gold attained such excellence in England
that it was known as Opus Anglicum, and doubtless
the Saxon princess saw very quickly the poverty and
meagreness of the Scottish ecclesiastical ornaments as
compared with those with which she had been familiar
in earlier days. Ladies of royal blood like St. Ethel-
dreda, the four daughters of Edward the Elder, and
Emma, the wife of King Canute, had long before
made themselves famous for their skill in such labours
as these. From another source, the Norman chronicler
Ordericus Vitalis (lib. viii., c. 22), we learn that
Margaret rebuilt the ruined monastery of lona.
The queen was, we are told, much addicted to visit
ing the anchorites, who were to be found in many
parts of Scotland. She entreated their prayers, and,
not being able to induce them to accept any gift, she
begged them to enjoin upon her some act of charity
or mercy, which she punctually fulfilled. It will be
remembered that Lochleven (see p. 202) was only a
few miles from Dunfermline ; and the Chartulary of
St. Andrews (p. 202) records a grant of land from
ASSISTANCE TO PILGRIMS. 281
Malcolm and Margaret to God Almighty and the
Keledei of Lochleven. In the reign of Alexander,
Margaret's son, we know there was an anchorite living
in the island of Inchcolm in the Forth, a short distance
from the village of Aberdour. This island would also
have been of easy access from Dunfermline.
St. Andrews was at that time much frequented by
pilgrims from all quarters ; to be of service to those
coming from the south, the queen ordered the erection
of houses on both sides of the Firth of Forth, where
the travellers could be sheltered and entertained till
they could be ferried over. In stormy weather these
pilgrims might be detained on either shore for many
days together. Ships for conveying them across were
also provided, and no charge was allowed to be
made.
Naturally the pitiable condition of the English
slaves in Scotland roused the compassion of the good
queen. She had inquiry made in all parts of Scotland
for cases of special hardship or ill-usage, and none
could tell the number of those whom she ransomed
and restored to liberty.
The chapter of St. Margaret's Life which has excited
most interest among ecclesiastical antiquarians is that
in which is related her efforts to bring the native
Church into conformity with the discipline and usages
of the Church in which she had been brought up.
We are told that at her instance frequent " councils"
were held to effect her object. But the most remark
able of these was one in which she herself, attended
by a very few of her own way of thinking (perhaps the
282 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
three English brethren, who, as we learn from a letter
of her early instructor, Lanfranc, he had at her request
despatched to the Scottish Court), debated for three
days the points at issue between her and the native
ecclesiastics. It would appear that, while the queen
conversed in the English tongue, the Scottish repre
sentatives carried on the debate in Gaelic, for Mal
colm — who, we are told, spoke English as well as his
own tongue — is represented as acting the part of inter
preter on both sides.
The first point discussed was what the queen, with
pardonable ignorance, regarded as a novel and foreign
usage, viz., beginning Lent, not on Ash Wednesday,
but on the Monday following. As is now well known,
the practice to which Margaret objected was simply a
survival of ancient usage, at one time common in
Western Christendom. Gregory the Great is generally
credited, though perhaps on insufficient grounds, with
having added Ash Wednesday and the three following
days to the Lenten fast in the Church of Rome, but
the ordinance was not everywhere followed ; and even
to this day the great Church of St. Ambrose at Milan,
following in this, as in several other particulars, its
own rite, observes Lent in conformity with the usage
which St. Margaret regarded with such distress.1
1 See Bingham's Antiquities, book xxi., chap, i., and the article
"Lent" in Smith and Cheetham's Diet, of Chr. Antiq. The
remarkable variety as to the length of time observed for the Lent
fast, particularly in the East, is brought out clearly by the his
torian Socrates (v. 22). Mr. Warren (Liturgy and Ritual of the
Celtic Church, p. 7) is disposed to see a trace of the more ancient
practice in the Sarum direction to cover up all crosses, etc. on
the first Monday in Lent.
RECEPTION OF THE EUCHARIST. 283
The second point at issue was the non-reception of
the Eucharist on Easter Day. This most extraordinary
practice was certainly no relic of ancient Columban
Christianity, as it appears in Adamnan ( Vita Columba,
lib. ii., c. 39) we have express reference to reception
at the Paschal solemnity. The Scottish opponents of
the queen cited the warning of St. Paul against " eating
and drinking unworthily." The queen promptly replied,
" Shall then none who are sinners taste of the sacred
mysteries ? None, not even the infant of a day old,
is without the stain of sin.1 If none ought to receive,
why does the Lord say in the Gospel, ' Unless ye shall
eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood,
ye shall have no life in you ' ? " She then explained
the words of St. Paul in their true sense; and the
overwhelming force of her argument was admitted.
Lord Hailes (Ann. of Scot., vol. i., p. 42) is doubtless
quite mistaken in inferring from this passage that "the
clergy of Scotland had ceased to celebrate the com
munion of the Lord's Supper," if he means that they
had ceased to celebrate mass. But it seems to me
that the argument adduced by the supporters of the
Scottish practice indicates that reception beyond that
of the celebrant had generally ceased. There is no
hint (as Mr. Joseph Robertson (Stat. Eccl. Scot., I.
xxiii.) would suggest) that the objection was based on
1 This argument may perhaps point to a continuance of the
universal practice in the ancient Church of communicating infants.
Some years after Queen Margaret's death, we have a notice of
the usage at Poictiers, and traces of the practice lingered in
France for centuries after that time. See Scudamore's Notilia
Eiicharistica, 2nd edit., p. 55.
284 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
a regard for the special sanctity of Easter. The
conclusion that I regard as most probable is, that
the laity never communicated except at the hour
of death. The Book of Deer (see p. 239) contains
the formula for communicating the sick, and hence
I make the exception. It has been remarked that
at the present day, in some parts of the Scottish
Highlands, among the more rigid Presbyterians to
avoid reception is considered the mark of a scrupulous
piety.
The third point had reference to the ritual of the
mass. Turgot tells us that "in some places there
were some of the Scots who, contrary to the usage of
the whole Church, had been accustomed to celebrate
mass with some barbarous rite or other (nescio quo ritu
barbaro)" The queen was much scandalized, and so
exerted herself that henceforth there was not one in
the whole nation of the Scots that would presume to
follow the objectionable practices. I am quite unable
to accept Skene's view that the barbarous rite consisted
in the Scottish vernacular being used instead of Latin.
There is, so far as I know, not a particle of evidence
in support of this contention ; and one can hardly
doubt that such a startling deviation from general
practice would have been expressly noticed and com
mented on by the queen's biographer. Much more
likely, as I take it, is the supposition that some
varieties of ceremonial (see p. 238) and, perhaps, of
the language of the missal, would have grievously
offended the queen. Any practice with which she
was not familiar in her much-loved English Church
SANCTITY OF THE SABBATH. 285
would easily enough be reckoned as " barbarous " by
her.1
The fourth question in debate was the general
disregard of the sanctity of the Lord's Day, so that
ordinary labour was carried on as on other days. The
queen contended for the veneration due to the Lord's
Day on account of the Lord's resurrection, and Pope
Gregory was cited by her in support of her view. In
this matter also she was completely successful, so that
no one would even carry a burden on the sacred day
or require any other person to do so.2
The last point pressed by St. Margaret at this
council belonged rather to the region of morals than
of mere ecclesiastical order. Marriage with a step
mother, and of a woman with her deceased husband's
brother, had been customs in Scotland. These customs
were henceforth in Scotland rigidly suppressed. From
Augustine of Canterbury's question to Pope Gregory
whether men might marry their step-mothers, we learn
that this practice existed in southern Britain in the
sixth century (Bede, Eccles. Hist., lib. i., c. 27); and
nearly a century after St. Margaret's time this offensive
custom was still common among the Irish. In Ireland
also marriage with a brother's widow was frequent.
Turgot adds that the queen succeeded in expelling
1 Such extraordinary regulations, for instance, as those de
scribed at p. 235, if they came to the knowledge of the queen,
might not unnaturally have been reckoned by her as constituting
a " barbarous rite."
2 Skene's notion that Saturday was observed as a day of rest
in the Columban Church seems wholly without foundation. See
Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., p. 350.
286 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
many other abuses; but these he does not specify.
Apart from the interest that attaches to the picture
presented of the personal character of the good queen,
this section dealing with the differences between the
practices of Scottish and English Christianity at the
close of the eleventh century is the most important
part of the Life. It is to be regretted that Turgot did
not enter into particulars more fully.
Margaret's success as a controversialist may have
been, we may suspect, in large measure due to the
fact, related by Turgot, that Malcolm was prepared
both to say and do whatever she might direct as to the
questions at issue. He was not a man to be trifled
with.
In 1093, Malcolm and his eldest son Edward
advanced with an army into Northumberland. He
was entrapped, as it would seem, by the Earl, Robert
of Mowbray, into an ambush, and fell by the sword,
together with the prince and heir to the throne, not
far from the town of Alnwick. His troops were wholly
dispersed — some fled, some were slain in battle, and
others were swept away in trying to cross the swollen
river Alne. Two of the country people placed the
king's forsaken body on a cart, and conveyed it to
Tynemouth, where it was buried.
While Malcolm was absent on this expedition, his
wife was lying afflicted with sore sickness in the Castle
of Edinburgh. At an interview with Turgot, some
considerable time before, she had anticipated that she
was not destined for a long life. Bidding him farewell,
LAST ILLNESS OF QUEEN MARGARET. 287
she made two solemn requests —first that he would
remember her in his prayers, and, secondly, that he
would watch over the spiritual welfare of her dear sons
and daughters, above all begging him to warn any of
them whom he saw in danger of being puffed up by
the dignity of earthly state, not to neglect the happi
ness of the life which is eternal. Her last sickness
was tedious and painful. For more than half a year
she was seldom able to rise from her bed. She was
attended by a priest, who afterwards became a monk
of Durham, and who related the closing incidents of
her life to Turgot. She was naturally full of anxiety
about the king, whom she had entreated not to go
with the army ; and the expression of her appre
hensions, upon a day which afterwards proved to be
the day of the king's death, was regarded as something
very remarkable. On the fourth day after the king's
death, and while yet in ignorance of the event, feeling
a little stronger, she rose and went to the oratory l to
hear mass, and to partake of " the holy viaticum of
the body and blood of the Lord." She returned to her
bed much worse, and she begged the priest and other
ministers of the altar to stand near and recite the
psalms for the commendation of a departing soul.
She also asked that the Black Cross of Scotland should
1 The oratory here spoken of may be the little chapel of St.
Margaret on the summit of the Castle Rock. This chapel is the
oldest building in Edinburgh. In estimating the age of buildings
of this period, it is too often forgotten that the Norman style
had made itself sensibly felt in Britain before the Norman Con
quest. In 1845 this building was used as a powder magazine for
firing occasional salutes from the neighbouring battery.
288 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
be brought her,1 and, holding it before her eyes with
both her hands, she repeated the whole of the Fiftieth
Psalm (/. e. the Fifty-first, according to the numbering
followed in our Bible and Prayer-book). At this point
her son Edgar, who had escaped from the fatal ex
pedition, entered the room. The queen at once
inquired about his father and brother. Fearing to
make known the terrible truth, he replied that they
were well. She, with a deep sigh, cried, " I know it,
my son, I know it. By this Holy Cross, by the tie of
our blood, I adjure thee to tell me the truth." Under
this pressure Edgar related the facts. Then, raising
both her eyes and her hands to heaven, she exclaimed,
" All praise to Thee, Almighty God, who hast been
pleased that I should suffer this deep sorrow at my
departing, and I trust that by this suffering it is Thy
pleasure that I should be purified from some of the
stains of my sins." Then she prayed in words taken
from the service of the mass, " Lord Jesus Christ,
1 The Black Rood was a gold cross set with diamonds, con
taining, as in a reliquary which opened and shut, "a portion of
the true Cross." The figure of the Saviour, which ornamented
it, was carved out of massive ivory. The queen had brought it
with her to Scotland, and it is generally said to have received its
name from the black case in which it was preserved. The queen's
youngest son, David, afterwards built the abbey-church of Holy
Rood, outside the city of Edinburgh, perhaps in its honour. The
Black Rood was carried off to England by Edward I. ; but it was
restored, to the indignation of the English, by Queen Isabella in
1327, on the demand of Robert Bruce. In 1346 David II. took
the precious relic with the army into England, and on his defeat
at the battle of Neville's Cross, near Durham, the Black Rood
fell into the hands of the victors, and was deposited in Durham
Cathedral, where up to the Reformation it was exposed for
veneration in the south aisle.
DEATH OF MALCOLM. 289
who according to the Father's will, by the operation
of the Holy Spirit, hast by Thy death given life to
the world, deliver me." As she uttered the words
"deliver me," her soul departed to Christ. Her
body was removed to Dunfermline, and deposited in
the church which she had built, and, as she directed,
opposite the altar. The remains of her husband were
afterwards removed from his English grave, and buried
by the body of his queen.1
It is a noteworthy and significant fact that shortly
before his death Malcolm Canmore had ceased to
hold, as part of the kingdom of Scotland, lona, the
sacred burying-place of Scottish kings, the birthplace,
and for so many long years the fostering home, of
Celtic Christianity. In the same year Fothad, the last
of the Celtic bishops of St. Andrews, died.
With St. Margaret one great chapter of Scottish
Church history closes and another is begun. The
peculiar characteristics of Celtic Christianity rapidly
1 The general sentiment of the Scottish people is commonly
thought to have been formally sanctioned in 1250 or 1251 by
Pope Innocent IV., when, according to Papebroch (followed by
Alban Butler), St. Margaret was canonized. But the publication
in 1864 of Theiner's Vetera Monnmenta Hibeniorum et Scotorum
historiain ilhistrantia, has raised a serious doubt on this question,
for we find in a document there printed (p. 499), Innocent VIII.
in 1487 addressing a letter to the Archbishop of St. Andrews,
the Bishop of Glasgow, and others, in reference to a petition
of King James for the canonization of Margaret, formerly Queen
of Scotland. It seems to me that no other Margaret than the
wife of Malcolm Canmore answers satisfactorily the conditions
of the case. At all events, long before this time the Saxon
Margaret, if not formally canonized at Rome, was regarded
by the Scottish people as a saint, and her cultus was well
established.
2QO THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
disappear and the mediaeval Church in Scotland in its
faith, discipline, ritual, and organization is entirely
akin to the mediaeval Church in, the kingdom of
England. " The old Celtic Church," in the words of
Skene (Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., p. 417), "came to an
end, leaving no vestiges behind it, save here and there
the roofless walls of what had once been a church,
and the numerous old burying-grounds, to which the
people still cling with tenacity, and where occasionally
an ancient Celtic cross tells of its former state. All
else has disappeared ; and the only records we have
of their history are the names of the saints by whom
they were founded, preserved in old calendars, the
fountains [wells] near the old churches bearing their
name, the village fairs of immemorial antiquity held
on their day, and here and there a few lay families
holding a small portion of land, as hereditary cus-
todiers of the pastoral staff or other relic of the reputed
founder of the Church, with some small remains of its
jurisdiction."
Turgot records neither the .day nor the year of St.
Margaret's death. But we learn from Simeon of
Durham and other English chroniclers that Malcolm's
defeat and death took place on " St. Brice's Day " (/. e.
13 Nov.) 1093; and so in accordance with Turgot's
narrative the death of St. Margaret is placed on
November 16. At this date St. Margaret is placed
by the Aberdeen Breviary ; and at this date "Margaret
Queen " is entered correctly in the Kalendar of the
Book of Common Prayer, prepared for Scotland under
Laud's sanction, and published in 1 63 7. It is somewhat
FEAST OF ST. MARGARET. 291
amusing to find Pope Innocent XII. in 1693 removing
the P'east of St. Margaret to June 10, at the instance
of King James II. of England, that being the birth
day of his son, "the old Chevalier." This was a
rather singular mode of paying a compliment.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE ARCH/EOLOGY OF THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOT
LAND IN ITS HISTORICAL RELATIONS.
WE have seen that the documentary remains of
Celtic Christianity in Scotland are few, and, with
the exception of the invaluable work of Adamnan,
meagre and unsatisfying. The remains of a material
kind are more numerous, though they are scanty, com
pared with similar productions in Ireland.1
Buildings. — The architectural relics of the ancient
Scottish Christianity consist of a few small and ruined
churches, chiefly in the Western Highlands, and here
and there the remains of bee-hive cells of stone, which
gave shelter to monks or to the solitary anchorite,
together with a number of high-crosses and monu
mental stones.
The remains of Celtic Christianity in Scotland and
Ireland ought properly to be studied together. Just
1 A very thorough treatment of the Christian archaeology
of Scotland will be found in Dr. Joseph Anderson's masterly
work, entitled Scotland in Early Christian Times, in two
series, to which I am deeply indebted throughout this chapter.
Dr. Anderson is chiefly concerned, however, with archaeology
proper, and not with archceology in its relation to history.
RKMA1NS OF CELTIC CHRISTIANITY.
293
as Roman remains at Treves, or at Lincoln and York,
find their proper illustrations in Italy, so the scanty
relics of early Scottish art and architecture are to be
rightly understood by a reference to Ireland. The
same types recur in both countries, but in number
and excellence the Irish work far surpasses all that
has survived to our time in Scotland.
We have already noticed that the remains of early
Celtic Christianity at its Scottish centre, lona, have
perished. The visitor to the island may perhaps be
persuaded that he sees in an elevated ridge with flat
tened top the remains of the cashel, or vallum, which
protected the ancient monastery, and a pile of stones to
the west of the island, to be found with difficulty, may
294 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
possibly be the remains of a cell. It is impossible to
fix the date of the two high-crosses that alone remain,
though they are certainly both very distinctly of the
Celtic type. Everything else represents the work of
the mediaeval Church.
Not far from lona to the south, between Mull and
Scarba, is Eilean-na-Naoimh, one of the Garveloch
islands, or " Isles of the Sea." Reeves and Skene
concur in identifying it with the Hinba of the Life of
St. Columba. Here we find a small church, twenty-
one feet in length, dry-built of undressed stones. It
has in the east end one small square-headed window,
widely splayed both inside and outside, and a square-
headed doorway in the west end, the jambs of the
door being inclined so that the entrance is narrower
at the top than at the bottom. Close to the shore is
a bee-hive cell, the roof of which has fallen in. If
the identification with Hinba is correct, the humble
church of this island held at the same time within its
sacred walls five men, each one of whom made his
lasting mark upon the history of the Gospel in our
islands ; and close beneath that little window St.
Columba celebrated the Holy Mysteries in the
presence of St. Brendan, St. Cainnech, St. Comgall,
and St. Cormac (see p. 113).
The remains of similar cells, but in this instance
surrounded by a cashe?, or rampart, may be seen
on what was formerly an island in Loch Columcille
in Skye. The little church of Columcille close by is
just the same length as that at Eilean-na-Naoimh.
Close by the great cliff of the promontory of
WOODEN CHURCHES. 295
Deerness, in Orkney, is a little island on which are
the ruins of a group of eighteen cells of uncemented
stone, together with a little church, of dimensions
similar to those described above. Whatever doubts
may exist as to the dates of these structures, " they
reveal to us," as Dr. Anderson remarks, "a typical
form, of which it can be said with truth that no earlier
is known to exist, or is likely now to be discovered." 1
Though, as was natural to expect, no remains of
them have survived, documentary evidence makes it
certain that churches in the early part of the Celtic
period were not unfrequently constructed of timber,
which churches were perhaps contemporaneous in
some instances with the small structures of stone
already described. Thus there is some reason to
believe that the church erected by St. Columba at
lona was of wood. Indeed Bede (EccL Hist., lib. iii.,
c. 25) speaks of churches of wood as characteristic of
the northern builders, when he tells us that the
Scottish Finan (see p. 177) built his cathedral at
Lindisfarne " not of stone, but wholly of hewn \
timber after the manner of the Scots, and he roofed >
it with a thatch of reeds." Again, in 710, Naiton,
king of the Picts (see p. 146 ), whose sympathies were
not with the Columban monks in their adherence to
their distinctive Easter computation and their charac
teristic tonsure, asks Ceolfrid to send him architects i
" who would make in his nation a church of stone •
after the manner of the Romans " (EccL Hist., lib. v.,
c. 21). The wooden structure of lona apparently gave
1 Scotland in Early Christian Times. Hrst Series, p. 106.
296 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
place to a stone building after the incursions of the
Northmen had shown what an easy prey to fire the
wooden buildings had been (see p. 195).
Chancelled churches, with some few doubtful ex
ceptions, belong to the period when Norman influence
made itself felt. One chamber, one door, one
window characterize the earliest work in stone. In
such primitive erections, or in wooden structures,
the great missionary saints celebrated the worship
of God.
Round Towers. — One of the most curious and
interesting features of the ecclesiastical architecture
of Ireland is exhibited in the Round Towers, of which
no less than one hundred and eighteen specihiens,
either perfect or fragmentary, were known to exist at
the beginning of the century.1 In Scotland at least
two 2 buildings of the same type remain, both, happily,
all but perfect — one at Brechin, in Forfarshire, the other
at Abernethy in Perthshire — both, it will be seen, in
the eastern part of Scotland. The former is 86 feet
9 inches high (omitting the height of the later octa
gonal cap), the latter (which has no cap) is 72 feet.
As in the prevailing Irish type, they stand free of
any other buildings. The doors are at some distance
from the ground, and must originally have been
1 See Miss Stokes' Early Christian Art in Ireland, p. 164.
Lord Dunraven, Notes on Irish Architecture, places the number
at present in Ireland as seventy-six.
- The round tower, structurally connected with the church, in
Egilsay (a small island of the Orkneys) presents more perplexing
problems than could be discussed here with advantage. The
reader is referred to Dr. Anderson's work already referred to.
ROUND TOWERS. 297
entered with the help of a ladder. The purpose of
these buildings was long doubtful, but is now gener
ally agreed upon by archaeologists. Everything points
to their having been used as places of security for the
ecclesiastics with their treasure of sacred bells, croziers,
shrines, and other relics, against the raids of pillagers.
Their Irish name doictheach (bell-house) may be simply
the translation of the name campanile, that was given
to the buildings on the Continent which suggested this
form, and which were really used as bell-towers. But
whatever difficulty is suggested by the name, we
possess no bells of the Celtic period of any consider
able size (see p. 304), or such as would make it an
object to build towers of this kind in which they might
be hung; and the Irish annalists leave us in no
doubt that the Towers were used as places of refuge
in sudden emergency. They were certainly well fitted
to afford a valuable protection, if their occupants
were likely to be before long relieved by a friendly
force. Such emergency might at any time arise,
not only from the incursions of the Northmen, but
from intestine feuds and tribal wars. The following
passages cited in Petrie's Essay on the Origin and Use
of the Round Towers of Ireland make clear, what
indeed we might ourselves have concluded from
an inspection of the buildings, that while highly
serviceable as a protection in sudden raids, they
were not fitted to sustain any lengthened and
organized attack from a powerful enemy.
"A.D. 948. The doictheach of Slane was burned
by the Danes, with its full of reliques, with
298 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Caoinechair, Reader of Slane, and the crozier of
the patron saint, and a bell — the best of bells."
— Annals of the Four Masters.
" A.D. 1097. The doictheach of the Monastery,
/. e. of Monasterboice, with many books and treasures,
was burnt." — Annals of the Four Masters.
Architectural reasons induce Dr. Anderson to be
lieve that the Brechin Tower must be referred to
a period at least later than the first half of the
tenth century. More than this cannot be said with
certainty. Boece tells us that the Danes assailed
Brechin and its church in the reign of Malcolm II.
(1001-1031), and burned it. This only shows that
the place, easily approached from the sea at Montrose,
was such as might well warrant the construction of a
place of defence and refuge. But the evidence goes
no farther.
Dr. Petrie is confident that the age of the Abernethy
Tower is " much greater than that of Brechin," and
places it in the early part of the eighth century. To
this conclusion, however, Dr. Anderson gives reason
for demurring. And at present we can say no more
with absolute confidence. But if the two Scottish
Round Towers were suggested by those in Ireland,
we are led to believe that Dr. Petrie has very un
duly antedated the structure at Abernethy. " The
annalists of Ireland do not refer to such buildings
till the year 950; and in the entries regarding the
attacks of the Northmen from 789 to 845 it is
recorded that the clergy fled for safety into the woods,
where they celebrated the divine mysteries, and spent
SCULPTURED STONE CROSSES. 299
their days in prayer and fasting ; but in the year 950,
and for two centuries later, we read of the
'cloiccthech,' house of a bell, as a special object
of attack to the Northmen." l
I would only add that the entire absence of such
buildings from the west of Scotland seems to me
also to point to the late date of the Brechin and
Abernethy Towers, as suggesting the time when the
centre of the Scottish ecclesiastical system had passed
from the west and been well established in the east
of Scotland. It was to Ireland the monks of lona
would naturally carry off their sacred treasure in the
case of a threatened raid of the Northmen. And in a
spot so isolated as lona, the defence afforded by a
Round Tower, useful as it would have been for a
temporary asylum, would be of little lasting value, as
the chance of the relief of the occupants from outside
would be comparatively small.
Sculptured Stone Crosses. — We have notices in
Adamnan's work of the erection of crosses in lona,
before the writer's time, to mark the place of some
notable occurrence. Thus on the spot where the
aged St. Columba rested on his way from the barn
to the monastery, upon the last day of his life, a
cross was erected and fixed in a mill-stone (Vita S.
Col,, lib. iii., c. 24). Another cross was raised at the
spot, " before the door of the kiln," where Ernan, the
uncle of the saint, suddenly died (lib. i., c. 35) ; and,
if I am correct in my understanding of the passage, a
third at the spot, twenty-four paces off, where the
1 Stokes. Early Christian Art in Ireland, p. 173.
300 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
saint, who was approaching to meet his guest, was
standing when Ernan fell1 But of the material or
character of these crosses we know nothing.
In later days there were certainly several crosses in
lona, of which only two — St. Martin's, and the cross
commonly called Maclean's — now remain perfect.
These, together with fragments of others, and the
names given to places in the local topography of the
island, suggest that perhaps there once existed some
fifteen or twenty of these striking monuments.
It is a curious fact that it is in the east of Scotland,
north of the Forth, we find what appear to be the
earliest of the Celtic crosses. These are not free
standing crosses, exhibiting at a distance the
cruciform shape, but are sculptured upon great
erect oblong slabs of stone. The noble free-standing
crosses, such as the dignified and imposing cross
of St. Martin at lona, are regarded by archaeologists
as of a later date.
One noticeable feature will be found in all the
crosses of Celtic origin. They are recessed or
ornamented at the intersections of the arms with
the shaft. A very common, but not universal,
feature is the circle which surrounds the crossing,
and connects the transverse and vertical limbs. A
certain sign of a late date is the presence of foliageous
ornament, the earlier specimens being adorned with
one or more of such forms as interlacing ribbon-work,
fret-work, bosses, twistings of serpentine forms, or
1 The translator in the Historians of Scotland (vol. vi., p. 33)
renders "restitit" resided, as I think, quite incorrectly.
SUPERIORITY OF IRISH ART. 301
other zoomorphic decoration, and what is known as
" the escaping spiral "and " trumpet " ornament. A
certain sign of a still later date than the earlier speci
mens of foliage is the presence of the figure of the
Crucified upon the Cross. The earlier crosses, and
the crosses which exhibited the purest and finest
specimens of Celtic art, are symbolical, or merely
decorative in their ornament.
If one may venture on a conjecture as to why it is
the east of Scotland that has preserved the earliest
type of Celtic cross, it may be suggested that after
the expulsion of the Columban monks by King Naiton
from the kingdom of the Picts, Irish influences were
less likely to possess extensive power in that part
of the country. The connection was in a measure
interrupted. In the west the marked artistic
superiority, which at a later period characterized
Irish art, would, as I imagine, have more readily
effected a substitution of better work for the rude
crosses of an earlier time. Irish art in its decay,
perhaps for the same reason, affected the west rather
than the east of Scotland. Along the east of Scotland
then, in the Pictish kingdom, we find the most
primitive type; in the west the type both in its
perfection and in its decline.1
The period to which the several groups of monu
mental crosses are to be assigned is still open to
1 Beside Dr. Anderson's work, the student should consult Dr.
John Stuart's superb volumes, the Sculptured Stones of 'Scotland,
which exhibit with great beauty the elaboration and intricacies
qf the artistic designs..
302 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
much question. The best specimens of the decorated
crosses we are led to believe are not to be connected
with the period of early Celtic Christianity, and very
competent authorities would place them not earlier
at least than the beginning of the tenth century.
More uncertainty attaches to the dates of the ruder
examples and to the incised crosses. But Stuart gives
weighty reasons for supposing that some of the crosses
in the Pictish district of Scotland date from the early
part of the eighth century,1 that is, from the time of
Adamnan and Cuthbert.
Christian Symbols in Caves. — We have already called
attention to instances of the practice of the early Celtic
monks retiring for a time to some place of solitude
for the purposes of greater seclusion from the busy
world of monastic life, and the exercise of a less
interrupted devotion. Such a place of retirement
was styled, in the ecclesiastical language of the day,
a " Desert." The caves along the Scottish sea-coast
would obviously afford many places not unsuited for
this purpose, and in many instances local tradition is
strong in connecting the names of eminent ecclesiastics
with caves. Careful examination of these caves has
in several cases discovered sculptures of Christian
origin upon their rocky walls. To take the earliest
instances, a cave about three miles from Whithorn has
from time immemorial borne the name of " St. Ninian's
Cave." Only a few years ago Sir Herbert Maxwell
undertook the investigation of this cave, and after a
large quantity of gravel and rubbish had been removed,
1 Sculptured Stones of Scotland, vol. ii., preface, p. xvii.
CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS IN CAVES. 303
he was rewarded by finding several well-defined speci
mens of sculptured crosses, in their character of an
early date.
What is now the town of Dysart, on the coast of
Fife, is believed to owe its name to the neighbourhood
having once afforded a " Desert " to St. Serf. I do not
know whether the cave has been examined with such
thoroughness as that displayed by Sir Herbert
Maxwell, but when Dr. Stuart published the second
volume of the Sculptured Stones (1865) no distinctively
Christian markings were found. The rock, however,
it should be remarked, is of a soft sandstone, from
which carvings would be easily removed by natural
causes. According to the legend, read as the Third
Lesson on St. Serfs Day (July ist) in the Aberdeen
Breviary, it was in the cave of Dysart that the devil
engaged the saint in a theological discussion upon
various knotty questions which are given at length in
Wyntoun's Cronykil (book v., ch. xii.).1 Finally the
devil acknowledged himself beaten, and told the
saint " he kend hym for a wys man," and so departed,
never again to return.
At St. Andrews there is a cave that bears the name
of St. Regulus ; but Dr. Stuart observes, " The crumb
ling surface of the sandstone shows no remains of
sculpture." 2 A few miles to the south, however, at
Kinkell, the walls of a cave show sculptured crosses ;
and rounding Fifeness at a few miles to the south the
1 Wyntoun was Prior of the monastery of St. Serf's, Inch,
Lochleven, towards the end of the fourteenth century.
2 Sculptured Stones, vol. ii., preface, p. Ixxxviii.
304 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
caves of Caiplie show many crosses, some of them exe
cuted with an eye to artistic effect. There are other caves
associated with the names of Scottish saints, such as
St. Kiaran's, near Campbelton, St. Medan's on the
Bay of Luce, and St. Monan's, near the village of that
name in Fife. These "Deserts" of the early saints
deserve a more thorough and systematic investigation
than has yet been bestowed upon them.1
Bells. — Associations of much interest gather round
the ancient bells of the Celtic Church. From the
view-point of the student of art the earliest and most
highly honoured of these relics are wholly devoid of
merit. They are of the rudest construction, and
entirely wanting in decoration. They are simply
sheets of iron hammered into an oblong quadrilateral
shape, and kept in position by rivets, a flattened loop
of the same metal being attached to the crown of the
bell as a handle.2 Sometimes these iron bells were
given a coating, inside and out, by being dipped into
molten bronze. Some of the bells of a later date are
cast in bronze, and assume some elegance of form;
and occasionally the handle is slightly decorated. All
the bells that have survived are small ; and are in fact
hand-bells. Not a single specimen of what could now
be reckoned a church-bell has come down to us, and
we have no reason to suppose that any such were
hung in Scottish churches during the period with
1 Many town-lands in Ireland, and at least six parishes, have
names of which " Desert " forms a part.
2 The ancient bell of the Irish missionary, St. Gall, in Switzer
land, is of this type.
ANCIENT BELLS. 305
which we are dealing.1 Yet, of little interest as are
these bells considered merely as works of art, they
have in many instances been regarded by the Celtic
people of the country with profound reverence and
even awe. It was doubtless mainly as personal relics
of the ancient saints that they assumed this importance.
If we did not know that the use of the "sacring-bell,"
with the elevation of the consecrated elements of the
Eucharist, did not come into use till the twelfth
century, we might be led perhaps to fancy that at
least the smaller bells might have had in popular
esteem some special sacredness attached to them as
connected with this rite. But, so far as we know,
these bells could have no ordinary sacred use, except
1 The following are measurements of some interesting bells-
Height Breadth at the
in inches, mouth in inches.
Bell of Kilmichael Glassary, Argyleshire
(Iron) 3£ 2ixi£
Bell of Outline, Forfarshire (Iron) ... 7 5l x 4^
Bell of Struan, Perthshire (Iron) ... n 7 x 5!
Bell of Birnie, Morayshire (Hammered
Iron) 18 6 X4
Bell of Birsay, Orkney (Iron) ... ... 12 9 X7
Bell from the Broch of Burrian, North
Kojialdshay ... ... ... ... 2^ 2 x i
St. Ringan's (i. e. Ninian's) Bell (Iron),
in National Museum, Scotland ... 6£ 44 x 4
St. Columkill's Bell (Iron), in National
Museum, Scotland ... ... ... 10^ Sim-
perfect
St. Fillan's Bell (Cast Bronze), in National
Museum, Scotland ... ... ... 12 9x6
Bell of Insh, Inverness-shire (Cast Bronze) 10 9 x 7i
To which for purposes of comparison may be added similar
measurements of the famous Bell of St. Patrick's Will, composed
of two pieces of sheet-iron, which is 6 inches high, and 5 x 3$
inches at the mouth.
306 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
that of calling the monastic brethren to prayer at the
regular hours and in sudden emergencies.1
However the belief arose, supernatural powers and
miraculous occurrences are often connected in the
ancient legends with these bells. The Pope of Rome
gave St. Ternan (see p. 46) a present of a bell when
he visited that city, but the Scottish saint, thinking it
too troublesome to take it with him, left it behind.
The bell, however, followed him in his journey, day
by day, all the way till he reached Scotland. Such, at
least, is the tale read for edification in the churches of
Scotland up to the time of the Reformation.2
St. Mungo's bell was reckoned of such importance
that it figures to this day, with his salmon, his bird,
and his tree, in the arms of the city of Glasgow, as it
had done previously in the seals of some mediaeval
bishops of that diocese. In St. Patrick's legendary
history, his bell — indeed more than one bell — plays
an important part (see p. 224). In the equipment he
provides for a missionary priest a bell figures together
with a chalice ; and it was thought worth recording
the name of the attendant, Sinell of Cell Dareis,
whose duty it was to carry the saint's hand-bell.
When St. Patrick ordained Fiech to be bishop, he
gave him a crozier and a bell, as badges of his office.^
According to the legend of St. Kiaran, who is repre-
1 See Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, lib. ii., c. 43 ; lib. iii.,
c. 14 ; lib. i., c. 7 ; lib. iii., c. 24.
2 See Aberdeen Breviary, Feast of St. Ternan.
3 See Dr. Reeves' St. Patrick's Bell and Shrine, prefixed to
Marcus Ward's fine chromo-lithographic plates representing these
relics (Belfast, 1850).
LEGENDS OF BELLS. 307
sented as the first bishop of Ossory, St. Patrick, meeting
the saint in Italy, told him to go and build a monastery
in the centre of Ireland. Kiaran, complaining that
the direction as to the locality was vague, St. Patrick
gave him a bell, which would be mute till he came to
the right spot, but would then ring out, and so it came
to pass St. Patrick's own bell was enshrined (between
A.D. 1091 — 1105) in a case ornamented with gold,
silver, and gems ; and the practice of thus honouring
and protecting ancient bells was common in Ireland.
In Scotland we still possess two enshrined bells. One
of these is the Bell of Kilmichael Glassary (in Argyle-
shire), the highly ornamental shrine of brass being
regarded by experts as in the style of the twelfth
century. Dr. Anderson (ut supr., p. 208) suggests the
possibility that the bell thus honoured is no other
than the bell made for St. Columba's contemporary,
St. Moluag, bishop of Lismore. The memory of this
saint was much honoured in the mediaeval Church, his
festival (June 25) appearing in the Kalendar of the
Aberdeen Breviary as (in technical language) a
" double major." Now the Second Lesson appointed
for that day relates that at one time the saint wanted
a neighbouring smith to make for him a square iron
bell {ferream campanam et quadratam] which he
much needed. The smith pleaded in excuse that he
had no coals, whereupon St. Moluag, "trusting the
very great goodness of God Almighty," left the smithy,
and soon returned with a bundle of reeds, which he
asked the smith to substitute for coals. The smith
was an angry man, and threw the bundle and the iron
308 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
together into the furnace to convince the saint of his
folly; but, to the astonishment of all, the iron was
soon fit for the hammer, and the bell was made, which
was ever after held in great honour in the Church of
Lismore, even "to this day" (i.e. 1510). The Kil-
michael Glassary Bell and its shrine are now preserved
in the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh.
The other enshrined bell that remains in Scotland
is the Guthrie Bell, preserved at Guthrie Castle in
Forfarshire. It is of hammered iron, and the shrine
(perhaps fourteenth-century work) is of bronze decor
ated originally with silver, gilding, and precious stones.
So far as I know, outside the Celtic Church the shrin
ing of bells is unknown.
The religious awe with which these ancient relics
were regarded has its curious exemplification in the
statement of Giraldus Cambrensis, that the people of
Scotland, Ireland, and Wales considered an oath
made upon one of the ancient bells or croziers as
much more binding than an oath made upon the
Gospels. In Ireland the Bell of St. Columkille went
under the native name of " God's Vengeance," in
reference to the awful consequences of perjury that
were to be apprehended by those who had falsely
sworn upon this sacred object. Among another Celtic
people, the peasants of Brittany, the Bell of St. Win-
waloe, who is believed to have flourished in the fifth
century, was held in great veneration in modern
times.1
1 Ada Sanctorum of the Bollandists, March 3. '«
310 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
In many cases, as in Scotland, a special custodian
was appointed for the safe guardianship of a bell or of
a crozier, and his office was endowed by the great and
wealthy with grants of land. The honourable office
of warden of the bell, as with other similar offices,
sometimes became hereditary. And it is in a measure,
perhaps, due to the connection between the tenure of
the land and the possession of the bell that we owe
the preservation of some of these interesting relics.
The history of these hereditary offices belongs, how
ever, to a period later than that with which we are
dealing.
However largely superstitious fears entered into the
feelings associated with these ancient bells, something
may, surely, be credited to the sentiment of personal
reverence for the memory of the great servants of
God, who laboured so devotedly for the Christianizing
of Scotland.
It is a very interesting fact that in more than one
instance bells of the quadrate shape and obviously of
the ancient type have been preserved by the country
people of Scottish parishes in the Highlands without
any other protection than that afforded by the prevail
ing sentiment of the neighbourhood. In the upper
part of Glenlyon, in an old graveyard, an ancient bell,
of hammered iron, shaped quadrangularly, and fas
tened with rivets, has stood, it is believed for cen
turies, in the open air. The Bell of St. Finan (bronze)
lies on a flat stone in the graveyard of Eilean Finan,
in Loch Shiel, in Inverness-shire. The Bell of Insh-
on-the-Spey is of cast bronze. It used to stand a few
LEGENDS OF BELLS. 31!
years ago (I do not know whether it still so stands) on
the sill of one of the church windows. An interesting
local tradition, the more valuable, perhaps, because
its real historical significance is quite unperceived by
the people of the district, declares that it was once
removed, but kept crying perpetually, " Tom Eunan,
Tom Eunan" (i.e. "the hill or mount of Eunan"),
till it made its way back to the hill of that name on
which the church is erected. Now Eunan, as we
have seen (p. 147), was one of the curious phonetic
transformations of Adamnan. It may well be, as Dr.
Anderson thinks, that this bell was in some very real
way connected with the ninth abbat of lona and
biographer of St. Columba. Another bell that formerly
had the reputation of always returning to its own
place is the Bell of St. Fillan, from Strathfillan, a fine
bronze bell, now deposited in the National Museum
of Antiquities, Edinburgh. As late as the end of the
last century, when the bell was most culpably removed
by an English tourist and conveyed to his home in
England, St, Fillan's bell was believed to possess
supernatural powers, more particularly in cases of
lunacy.1
The Pastoral Staff. — Among other personal relics
of the Celtic saints, the staff, or crozier, was held
in great veneration. Like the bell, it possessed not
only personal associations, but also the associations
which connect themselves with an ecclesiastical office
of high dignity. Again, as in the case of the bell, the
rude original was by and by protected by a handsome
1 Anderson, Scotland in Early Christian Times, p. 192,
312 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
covering of metal, highly decorated and gemmed.
And, as with the bells, in process of time an hereditary
keeper of the relic is often found, honoured by an
endowment in land attached to his office.
Scotland still possesses some remains of the croziers
of the Celtic Church. While to the art student the
decorated crook of St. Fillan's crozier, presently to
be described, is valued as a beautiful specimen of
ornamentation, to the student of ecclesiastical
antiquity incomparably the most interesting of these
remains is the " Bachul More " ("the great baculus" or
staff), now in the possession of the Duke of Argyll at
Inverary Castle. This is, with reason, believed to be
the staff of St. Moluag, bishop of Lismore, whose
death is placed five years before that of St. Columba,
and the story of whose miraculous bell (see p. 307)
formed part of the lectionary of the mediaeval Church.
The metal covering has almost wholly disappeared,
and we see a plain rude staff of wood, but two feet
ten inches in length, with a slightly-curved head, pro
bably the actual blackthorn stick carried by the bishop
thirteen hundred years ago.1 If the staff, as it now
exists, gives us the original size, it will not be unique.
One of the figures at the door of the Round Tower at
Brechin holds a short staff with a crook • and one of
the illustrations of the Gospels of MacDurnan (about
A.D. 925), now in Lambeth Library, represents St.
1 The name Moluag deserves a word of comment. "The
original name is Lugaidh, pronounced Lua, with the endearing
suffix oc, Luoc or Luoch, and the honorific mo, Molua, Moluoc,
Moloch." (Bishop Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, p. 409.)
314 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Luke with a crooked stick about the same size as St.
Moluag's.1 It may be added that the hereditary
keeper of the crozier of St. Moluag possessed a small
freehold of land in virtue of his office.
Another example of an ancient Scottish crozier is
that of St. Fillan, whose memory still survives in the
name of the village of St. Fillans, beautifully situated
at the east end of Loch Earn, and well known to
summer tourists in Perthshire. The lovely valley of
Strathfillan, in the west of Perthshire, also owes its
name to this saint. Bishop Forbes would place his
life in the second half of the eighth century. The
account given of his history in the Lessons of the
Aberdeen Breviary surpasses the histories of most
Celtic saints in the extravagance of its absurdities.
The saint was born with a stone in his mouth, which
phenomenon so annoyed his father that he had the
infant thrown into a lake. After a year he was
recovered by good Bishop Ybar, who found him
playing with the angels. In after years he was seen
through a chink in his cell, by a prying servant of the
monastery, engaged in writing in the dark by the light
which flowed from his left hand, which served as a
candle. "By divine permission " a tame crane in the
monastery pecked out the spying eye of the servant ;
but St. Fillan, on the supplication of the brethren,
restored its power of sight. A wolf killed one of a
yoke of oxen employed by the saint, but on the
prayers of the saint the wolf came back, submitted
1 Tins figure is given in Stuart's Sculptured Stones, vol. ii., p.
78.
CROZIER OF ST. FILLAN. 315
himself to harness, and supplied the place of his
victim. After these and other such marvels, it was no
wonder that the saint's fame was great and wide
spread. It is a fact in history that what was believed
to be his arm enshrined in silver played an important
part at the battle of Bannockburn. The head of his
crozier, which had been carried from Scotland by a
member of the family of the hereditary keeper, who
emigrated to Canada, was recently recovered, and is
now deposited in the National Museum of Antiquities
in Edinburgh. With its exquisite character as a work
of art we are not here concerned ; but a careful
examination of the relic has revealed an inner metal
crook, which would seem to show that the original
staff had been twice enshrined in a decorated cover
ing.1 This crozier-head very well exhibits an interest
ing peculiarity in the form assumed by the Celtic
croziers. The curve of the crook, having made about
the third of a circle outward, drops suddenly into a
short rectilineal, or almost rectilineal, pendant. This
feature, which also appears in the illuminated repre
sentations of saints in the Irish manuscripts, is
regarded by archaeologists as a characteristic mark of
the Celtic crozier.2
The staff of St. Columba, given by him to St.
Mungo, was preserved, enshrined in gold and precious
stones, at Ripon. And we possess historical evidence
1 See Anderson, Scotland in Early Christian Times, pp. 219 —
224- r
- The name Quigrich, applied to St. Fillan's crozier, is of
uncertain meaning, and a discussion of the speculations that have
been made on the subject would be out of place here.
316 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
that the croziers of St. Donnan, St. Fergus, and St.
Munn were preserved and regarded with veneration
in different parts of Scotland ; but they are now
unfortunately lost or in concealment. Here, as else
where, Irish hagiology and Irish art is much richer
than the colonial Church in Scotland. From St.
Patrick's famous crozier — " the staff of Jesus "—
downwards, illustrations of our subject are abundant
in Ireland.1
Books and Book-Covers. — Our solitary relic, the
Book of Deer,2 suffices to show that the same spirit
of loving reverence for the sacred Scriptures that
manifests itself so abundantly in the decoration
bestowed upon the Irish manuscripts was not absent
from Scotland. The artistic ornament of this book
is indeed much inferior to many of the splendid
specimens in the sister island, but there is enough to
show us something of the care and patience of those
who were perhaps native scribes. The text is written
with elegance, and the decorated capitals and borders
exhibit much artistic skill. The human figures indeed
are rude and even grotesque ; but this is a feature in
more or less degree exhibited in most of the best
Irish manuscripts. There is no attempt at realistic
representation ; and one cannot doubt, however we
1 The story of the exchange of staffs made by St. Columba
and St. Mungo has been already related (p. 57). So, too, the
story of the marvel of St. Ninian's staff. A miracle connected
with the staff of St. Cairmech is related by Adamnan ( Vita S.
Cohtmbi?) lib. ii., c. 13). This saint is known as Canice in
Ireland, and Kenneth in Scotland.
- See p. 248.
POSITION OF THE SCRIBE. 317
may account for it, that the avoidance of verisimilitude
is deliberate and designed.1
We have seen how devoted St. Columba was to
the transcription of the sacred writings, and certainly
before the close of the seventh century the scribe
(Scriblmidh or Schribhneoir) appears as a recognized
member of the Irish monasteries. The high esteem
in which he was held may be inferred from an Irish
canon of the eighth century, which makes the mulct
for the blood of a scribe equal to that for the blood
of an abbat or bishop. Again, it was ordained that
stealing from " a king, a bishop, or a scribe " should
receive the same penalty. " Sometimes in Scotland,"
writes Mr. Warren,2 " in the seventh to tenth cen
turies, a scribe was elected to be an abbat or a
bishop, and the head of a diocese or monastery
thought that it added to the dignity of his position to
be able to append the title of ' scriba ' to his name. . .
The eighteenth and thirtieth Abbats of lona, in 797
and 978, and the Bishop of the Isles of Alba in
961, are also recorded to have been scribes."
Some of the manuscripts written, or supposed to
have been written, by eminent saints were naturally
objects deeply venerated, and they were honoured by
being enclosed in decorated cases of bronze or silver,
beautifully ornamented and adorned with gold and
valuable stones. A case of this kind was known as a
cumdach. Some fine examples of these book- shrines
1 A striking example from an Irish Psalter in St. John's
College, Oxford, is given in the article " Miniature " in Smith
and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities.
'* Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p. 18.
3l8 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
are preserved in Ireland. None of those that have
come down to us can be assigned to a date earlier
than the tenth century. The books which they
contained were doubtless in many instances much
earlier. Historically one of the most interesting is
the case that enshrines a Psalter ascribed, not without
some probability, to the penmanship of St. Columba,
which was believed to carry with it victory in battle.
Hence this Psalter was known as the Cathach or
" Battler." l Fifty leaves and the silver cumdach of this
precious relic still remain, and are deposited by the
chief of the O'Donnells in the Museum of the Royal
Irish Academy. The old order for its use in war was
that it should be "sent thrice right-wise around
the army of the Cinel Conaili (one of the northern
branches of the Hy Neill to which St. Columba
belonged) when they are going to battle. . . . And it
is on the breast of a co-arb or a cleric, who to the best
of his power is free from mortal sin, that the Cathach
should be, when it is brought round the army." 2
No specimen of a Scottish cumdach has been
preserved, so far as we know. But we possess a
notice 3 of a silver cumdach made by Fothad, the first
of that name, Bishop of St. Andrews about 950, for a
copy of the Gospels, which was to be seen, as we learn
1 Another relic of St. Columba used as a ''Battler" was a
crozier of his carried as a standard into battle and called Cath-
bhuaidh, that is Battle-victory. See Reeves, Historians of
Scotland, vol. vi., p. xcix.
2 See Reeves' Life of St. Columba (Historians of Scotland, vol.
vi. p. xlii).
3 In Bower's continuation of Fordim's history, Scoticlironicon.
ORNAMENTED BOOK-COVERS. 319
elsewhere, on the high altar at St. Andrews in the
middle of the fourteenth century. The case was
inscribed with a Latin elegiac couplet setting forth that
" Fothad, who is chief bishop (summus episcopus Scottis]
for the Scots constructed this case (thecam) of an
ancient Gospel."
Another notice of a Scottish cumdach informs us
that St. Ternan's copy of St. Matthew's Gospel was
preserved at Banchory Ternan "enclosed in a metal
case covered with silver and gold." J
There is reason also for thinking that the large
square case-like ornament which is pictured as
suspended from the neck of three of the four
Evangelists in the illustrations of the Book of Deer
represents a cumdach. It is not uncommon in
similar illustrations to find each of the Evangelists
carrying a book, doubtless meant for his own Gospel,
in his hand; and it is not improbable that in the
Book of Deer the figures are represented as carrying
each his own Gospel suspended in its case by straps
round his neck. It is certain 2 that leather satchels
for carrying books were so suspended on the breast
by straps, and in an Irish Life of St. Columba 3 that
saint is recorded to have made a hundred such
satchels.4 Lastly, the pillar-stones of Scotland afford,
1 Martyrology of Aberdeen.
2 See Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, lib. ii., c. 8.
3 Translated by Mr. Hennessey, and appended to the second
volume of Skene's Celtic Scotland.
4 Whatever a polaire, by some taken to mean a satchel, may
have been, it is certainly, in the passage referred to, spoken of as
distinct from satchels. "A hundred fine artistic polaires ; with
a hundred croziers, with a hundred satchels."
32O THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
according to Dr. Stuart,1 some examples of cumdaclis
represented in the sculptures.
Not only did Ireland, the mother-church of the
Scotland colony, construct book-shrines, but we know
that in the daughter-church of Northumbria a similar
practice existed. Eadfrid, bishop of Lindisfarne (698 —
721), wrote and illuminated the famous "Lindisfarne
Gospels," one of the most beautiful manuscripts of its
kind. His successor, Bishop Ethelwold, caused a
case to be made for it by " Bilfrith the anchorite," a
skilful worker in metals, who adorned it with pure
silver, gold, and gems.
1 Sculptured Stones, vol. ii., p. 25.
32I
APPENDICES.
I. THE ALTUS OF ST. COLUMBA.
AMONG the writings attributed to St. Columba is a verv.
remarkable Latin poem, commonly known as the Altus,
from the first words of its opening lines —
Altus Prosator Vetustus
Dierum et Ingenitus.
The verses were first printed by Colgan, and in our own
time by Dr. Todd in the second Fasciculus of his Liber
Hymnorum. A fresh interest has been awakened in this
ancient sacred poem by its recent publication under the
editorship of the Marquis of Bute.1
The poem consists of twenty-two stanzas (or capituld)
of twelve lines each (with the exception of the first, which
consists of fourteen lines), the initial letters of the stanzas
exhibiting an alphabetical arrangement, which would,
doubtless, serve as a help to memory. The Latinity is rude,
and the text, perhaps, corrupt ; certainly in more than
one place the sense is very obscure. But Lord Bute's
estimate is hardly exaggerated when he writes — "The
intrinsic merits of the composition are undoubtedly very
great, especially in the latter capitula, some of which the
1 The Altus of St. Columba, edited, with a prose, paraph rase and
notes, by John, Marquess of Bute, 1882. ?
X
322 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
editor thinks would not suffer by comparison with the
Dies Inc." The ancient belief of the people attached many
benefits, temporal and spiritual, to those who recited these
verses. The devil would not know their path to waylay
them ; their enemies would fail to find them ; angels
would attend them as they sung the poem ; it was a
protection against sudden death ; peace would reign in
the house where it was chanted, and plenty and prosperity
would wait upon the singers. Pope Gregory the Great,
as legend relates, was pleased with the poem which had
been sent to him by St. Columba, and was granted to
perceive the angels listening as it was recited in his
presence. The Pope saw but one fault in it — it was a
mistake to confine the praises of the Blessed Trinity to
only one stanza.
Through the kindness of the Rev. Anthony Mitchell,
whose poetic gifts are well known to his friends, I am
permitted to print here his very able and spirited render
ing of the Altus—z. task which, when the many difficulties
attendant upon it are considered, seems to me to have
been accomplished with singular skill. We are given a
glimpse, in the stanza commencing with the letter I, of
the writer's strange conceptions of the physical causes of
clouds and rain. The obscure and difficult stanza com
mencing with U baffles interpreters. Orion is probably
to be understood in a mystical sense, as signifying some
evil spiritual power or anti-Christian system. The other
parts of the poem, however, are intelligible, and several
of the stanzas are marked by a high degree of imaginative
power. The prominence given to the conceptions of
good and evil angels falls in with striking features in
Adamnan's story of St. Columba's life ; and the tendency
shown to dwell upon what is dark and terrible will seem
natural to those who have justly apprehended the character
of the reputed author of the poem.
THE ' ALTUS ' OF ST. COLUMBA. 323
THE ALTUS OF ST. COLUMBA.
of days, enthroned on high !
The Father unbegotten He,
Whom space containeth not, nor time,
Who was and is and aye shall be :
And one-born Son, and Holy Ghost,
Who co-eternal glory share,
One only God, of Persons Three,
We praise, acknowledge, and declare.
gEiNGS celestial first He made;
Angels and archangels of light,
In Principalities and Thrones,
And mystic rank of Power and Might :
That Love and Majesty Divine
Not aimlessly alone might dwell,
But vessels have, wherein to pour
Full wealth of gifts ineffable.
£AST from the highest heights of heaven,
Far from the Angels' shining state,
Fadeth from glory Lucifer
Falling in scorn infatuate.
Angels apostate share his fall,
Steeled with his hate, and fired with pride,
Banished from their fellows bright
Who in the heavenly seats abide. ,
£) IREFUL and foul, the Dragon great,
Whose deadly rage was known of old,
The slippery serpent, wilier
Than living thing that earth doth hold :
324 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
From the bright realm of heaven he could
A third part of the stars entice,
In Hell's abyss to quench their light,
In headlong fall from Paradise.
next and heaven, sea and
Found shape within the Eternal mind,
And stood created. Next appeared
The fruitful herb, and tree in kind :
Sun, moon, and stars that climb the heavens,
And birds and fishes, great and small,
And beasts and herds and living things,
And man to be the king of all.
pROM every glad Angelic tongue
Soon as the stars sprang into light,
Burst forth the wondering shout that praised
The heavenly Creator's might.
And as His handiwork they viewed
Arose from loving hearts and free,
The tribute due of wondrous song
Swelling in sweetest harmony.
'Q.AINST Satan's wiles and Hell's assault
Our primal parents could not stand :
And into new abysses fell
The leader and his horrid band ;
Fierce forms, with noise of beating wings,
Too dread for sight of mortal eye,
Who fettered, far from human ken,
Within their prison houses lie.
'T-TiM, banished from his first estate,
The Lord cast out for evermore ;
And now his wild and rebel crew
In upper air together soar ;
THE 'ALTUS' OF ST. COLUMBA. 325
Invisible, lest men should gaze
On wickedness without a name,
And, breaking every barrier down,
Defile themselves in open shame.
JN the three quarters of the sea
Three mighty fountains hidden lie,
Whence rise through whirling waterspouts
Rich-laden clouds that clothe the sky:
On winds from out his treasure-house
They speed to swell bud, vine, and grain ;
While the sea-shallows emptied wait
Until the tides return again.
XT' INGS' earthly glory fleeteth fast,
And for a moment is its stay :
God hath all might : and at a nod
The giants fall beneath His sway ;
Neath waters deep, with mighty pangs,
In fires and torments dread they rave,
Choked in the whirlpool's angry surge,
Dashed on the rocks by every wave.
T IKE one that through a sparing sieve
The precious grain doth slowly pour,
God sendeth down upon the earth
The cloud-bound waters evermore :
And from the fruitful breasts of heaven,
While changing seasons wax and wane,
The welcome streams that never fail
Pour forth in rich supplies of rain.
A/TARK how the power of God supreme
Hath hung aloft earth's giant ball,
And fixed the great encircling deep,
His mighty hand supporting all
326 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Upon the pillars which He made,
The solid rocks, and cliffs that soar,
And on the sure foundations rest,
That stand unmoved for evermore.
doubteth that within the earth
Glow the devouring flames of hell,
Wherein is prisoned darkest night
Where noisome beasts and serpents dwell,
Gehenna's old and awful moan,
And cries of men in anguish dire,
And falling tears, and gnashing teeth,
And thirst, an.d hunger's burning fire.
QF realms we read beneath the world
Where the departed spirits wait,
Who never cease to bend the knee,
To Christ, the only Potentate.
They could not ope the written Book,
Whose seven seals none but He might break,
Fulfilling thus the Prophet's word,
That He should come, and victory make.
PARADISE and its pleasant glades
From the beginning God did make ;
Out of whose fountain-head there flow
Four rivers sweet, earth's thirst to slake.
And midmost stands the tree of life,
With leaves that neither fade nor fall,
With healing to the nations fraught,
Whose joys abundant never pall.
(QUESTIONS the Singer,— "Who hath climbed
'^ Sinai the mountain of the Lord?
The echoing thunders who hath heard,
And ringing trumpet-blast outpoured?
THE ' ALTUS ' OF ST. COLUMBA. 32
Who saw the lightning's dazzle whirl,
And heaving rocks that crashed and fell,
Mid metors' glare and darts of flame,
Save Moses, judge of Israel?"
J^ISETH the dawn ;— the day is near,
Day of the Lord, the King of kings ;
A day of wrath and vengeance just,
Of darkness, clouds, and thunderings ;
A day of anguished cries and tears,
When glow of woman's love shall pale ;
When man shall cease to strive with man,
And all the world's desire shall fail.
COON shall all mortals trembling stand
Before the Judge's awful throne,
And rendering the great account
Shudder each hateful sin to own.
Horror of night ! when none can work,
Wailing of men, and flooding tears,
Opening the books by conscience writ,
Riving of hearts with guilty fears.
T^HE trump of the archangel first
Shall blare afar its summons dread ;
And then shall burst earth's prison bars,
And sepulchres give up their dead.
The ice of death shall melt away,
Whilst dust grows flesh, and bone meets bone,
And every spirit finds again,
The frame that was before her own.
TjNLOOSED from the pole of heaven,
Speedeth Orion's evil ray,
Far from the clustered Pleiades,
Over the Ocean's trackless way.
328 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Two years shall pass ere he return
From East again with tortuous speed,
To shine instead of Hesperus. —
Whoso hath wisdom let him read.
VRIST the Most High from heaven descends
The Cross His sign and banner bright.
The sun in darkness shrouds his face,
The moon no more pours forth her light.
The stars upon the earth shall fall
As figs unripe drop from the tree,
When earth's broad space is bathed in fire,
And men to dens and mountains flee.
Y°NDER m heaven the angel host
Their ever-ringing anthems raise,
And flash in maze of holy dance,
The Trinity Divine to praise.
The four-and-twenty elders cast
Their crowns before the Lamb on high,
And the four Beasts all full of eyes
Their ceaseless triple praises cry.
VEAL of the Lord, consuming fire,
Shall whelm the foes amazed and dumb,
Whose stony hearts will not receive
That Christ hath from the Father come.
But we shall soar our Lord to meet,
And so with Him shall ever be,
To reap the due rewards amidst
The glories of Eternity.
329
II. THE LEGEND OF ST. REGULUS.
THE city of St. Andrews owes its name to the belief that
at that place in early times were deposited some of the
sacred relics of the apostle St. Andrew. The legend, as
believed in mediaeval times in Scotland, relates that in
the time of the Emperor Constantius, the son of Constan-
tine the Great, there was at Patras, in Achaia, a holy man
named Regulus, keeper of the relics of St. Andrew, who
had suffered martyrdom in that town. The emperor
resolved to avenge upon the people of Patras the cruci
fixion of the saint, to invade the town, and carry off with
him the relics of the Apostle. An angel appeared by
night to Regulus, and instructed him to take from the
shrine three fingers of the right hand, the large arm-bone,
one tooth, and a knee-cap. On the emperor carrying off
the remaining relics to Constantinople, the angel appears
again to Regulus, and bids him with certain companions
convey what he possessed to the western parts of the
world, and there found a church to the perpetual honour
and glory of St. Andrew. For two years he voyages, blown
about by storms of the sea, and at length lands in the
country of the Scots, and comes to " Swine's wood "
(Mucros), afterwards Kilrymont. The angel indicates the
place where he should build a church. Regulus sends his
companions to preach the word of God to the " Picts,
Scots, and Britons." Innumerable multitudes are con
verted, and the faith is received by Hungus, king of the
Picts, with his army. Such is the story as told in the
Aberdeen Breviary. This legend, together with two
somewhat earlier forms, has been examined with much
care by Skene,1 who also takes into view notices of an
1 Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, vol. iv., pp.
301—307, and Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., pp. 261 — 268.
330 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
Irish Regains or Riaghail of Muicinis (insula porcoruui),
an island in Loch Derg, whose name appears in the Irish
Martyrologies at the i6th of October. Several of the
Scottish Kalendars record the Scottish Regulus on the
same day, and so suggest that Regulus of Muicinis and
Regulus of Mucros (promontorium porcoruni] are the
same person. Hence Skene concludes, " that the historic
Regulus belongs to a Columban Church founded among
those which Columba established among the southern
Picts during the last years of his life, and at the same time
when Cainnech of Achaboe had his hermitage there " (i. e.
in the north-eastern corner of Fife).
There can be no question that the special cultus of
St. Andrew in Scotland is of very early date. But the
inquiry as to how this came to be so is, I believe, wholly
insoluble by the historical monuments of antiquity that
are in our hands ; and I am certain I should be only
wasting time in discussing here the various conjectures on
the subject. The notion that the Picts were of the race
of the inhabitants of Scythia, of which country St. Andrew
was the reputed Apostle, may have originated the
cherished belief. Or there may possibly be some founda
tion of truth for the supposition that the Irish St. Riaghail
brought to Fife some reputed relics of the Apostle. But,
after all, this is mere guess-work.1
Every visitor to St. Andrews is struck with the stately
and beautiful tower of the little church of St. Regulus. It
is by far the most interesting, as well as the most ancient,
of the many ecclesiastical ruins that mark what was for
many centuries a great centre of Church life and influence.
But its date is certainly several centuries later than even
St. Riaghail, who himself is later by two centuries than
1 Some of my reasons for demurring to accept Mr. Skene's view
may be found in a paper contributed to the Proceedings of the
Society of Scottish Antiquaries, 1892-3.
ST. MARGARET'S GOSPEL BOOK. 331
the legendary monk of Patras. So high an architectural
authority as Sir Gilbert Scott (Lectures on Mediccval
Architecture, vol. ii., p. 24) is not able to speak with
confidence as to the date of the building. But it may
with reason be declared to be not earlier than the tenth
century, and more probably belongs to the eleventh or
twelfth.
III. ST. MARGARET'S GOSPEL BOOK.
THE following very interesting account of the volume
is taken from Mr. Falconer Madan's Books in Manu
script, 1893.
" Six years ago a little octavo volume in worn brown
binding stood on the shelves of a small parish library in
Suffolk, but was turned out and offered at the end of a
sale at Sotheby's, presumably as being unreadable to
country folk, and capable of being turned into hard cash
wherewith a few works of fiction might be purchased. The
contempt for it thus displayed was apparently shared by
the cataloguer, who described it as " Latin Gospels of the
Fourteenth Century, with English Illuminations." For
the sum of £6 it passed into the Bodleian Library, and
came to be catalogued as an ordinary accession. It was
noticed that the writing was of the eleventh century, and
that the illuminations were valuable specimens of old
English work of the same century, comprising figures of the
four evangelists of the Byzantine type, which was common in
the west of Europe ; the drapery, however, colouring and
accessories were purely English. The book itself was
seen to be not the complete Gospels, but such portions as
332 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
were used in the service of the Mass at different times of
the year. Further, it was observed that a poem in Latin
hexameters had been written, apparently before the end of
the same century, on a fly-leaf of the volume, which began
by thanking Christ for 'displaying miracles to us in our
own days,' and went on to describe how this very volume
had been carried in the folds of a priest's robe to a trysting-
place, in order that a binding oath might be taken on it ;
but that unfortunately it had been dropped, without the
priest observing it, into a stream, and given up for lost.
But a soldier of the party at last discovered it, plunged
head first into the river, and brought it up. To every one's
intense surprise, the beautiful volume was entirely un
injured, ' except two leaves, which you see at each end,
in which a slight contraction appears from the effect of
the water, which testify the work of Christ in protecting
the sacred volume. That this work might appear to us
still more miraculous, the wave washed from the middle
of the book a leaf of silk. May the King and pious Queen
be saved for ever, whose book was but now saved from the
waves ! ' The silk was, no doubt, pieces placed loosely in
the book to preserve the illuminations from contact with
the page opposite ; and, sure enough, a leaf at each end
of the book showed unmistakable crinkling from immer
sion in water. But who were the King and Queen ? By
a curious accident connected with the name of Margaret,
a lady to whom this story was told remembered a similar
incident in Forbes-Leith's Life of St. Margaret of Scot
land, and the mystery was solved. There in the Life is a
passage in prose, beginning : ' She had a book of the
Gospels beautifully adorned with gold and precious stones,
and ornamented with the figures of the four evangelists,
painted and gilt. . . . She had always felt a particular
attachment for this book, more so than for any of the
others which she usually read.' Then follows a story
ST. MARGARET'S GOSPEL BOOK. 333
almost identical with the one given above, with some
variant but not discrepant details. It, too, mentions the
pieces of silk and the contraction on certain leaves, and
adds that it was found lying open at the bottom of the
river."
The MS., of which Mr. Madan tells the story just
related, is very small, consisting of only thirty-eight leaves.
The size of the pages, according to measurements kindly
supplied to me by the Rev. H. A. Wilson, Fellow of
Magdalen College, Oxford, is 7|lx4fV inches. The
passages from the four Evangelists which form the con
tents of the book correspond to certain liturgical gospels,
but are arranged so as to follow one another according to
their places in the four Gospels of the New Testament
canon. There is no indication of the days upon which
the passages were used in the service of the Church. Each
series of extracts is preceded by a full-page miniature
representing one of the Evangelists. Notices of this
most interesting MS. by Mr. F. Madan, Prof. Westwood,
and Mr. F. E. Warren may be found in the Academy
(Aug. 6, Aug. 20, Sept. 3, 1887).
A fac-simile reproduction of the recently found manu
script is now (1893) in preparation under the editorship of
Mr. Forbes- Leith.
IV. THE KIRKMADRINE EPIGRAPH.
THE following interesting note on the inscription on the
monumental stone at Kirkmadrine was contributed to the
writer by the Rev. Edmund McClure —
"Your Lordship's conjecture as to Ides being part of
a proper name, and not, as is generally assumed, the
334 THE CELTIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
remnant of idest, is doubtless right. An eminent Cam
bridge Epigraphist puts idest out of the question. I
would venture to suggest that the name here intended was
Idesus. Id is a frequent element in early Cymric names,
e.g. Id-nert, Id-loes, &c. (Cambro-British Saints], Id-cant,
Id-guallon (Lib. Landav. new edition), and Esu-s is the
name of a Celtic Deity, and is probably cognate with
Gothic Ansi, Anglo-Saxon 6s, Old Norse dss (cf. Oswald,
Osbjorn). It appears in the Gaulish names Esu-nertus,
Esu-genus. Viventius, though Latin in form, does not
occur, as far as I can find, among Latin personal names.
It may represent an early British Vevendi. In the
' Cartulaire de Redon,' p. 339, appears a certain Gne-
guentus, and, at p. 281, a Gueguant. Pick's Ver-
gleichendes Wb'rterbitch, fourth edition, gives a stem Veios,
as represented in Irish Fe = anger : this would give the
Gue in Gueguentus, while the stem Vindo-s, white, would
furnish the latter part ; cf. Barrivendi, an inscription in
Carmarthenshire. Mavorius, if, as your Lordship sug
gests, it may also be read Matorius, is simple enough. If
Mavorius is the right reading, it can hardly be one of the
many personal names derived from Mars, e. g. Marius,
Mamercus, Martialis, &c., and may be a Latinized form
of some such name as Maguor. The et coupling the last
two of three names is possible in late Latin.
" The meaning of Madrine, with the accent on the last
syllable, as Professor Rhys has pointed out to me, is very
obscure. One is tempted to regard the Ma as represent
ing the endearing prefix Mo, and some such name as
Draighen (Martyr, of Doneg.}"
Another stone at Kirkmadrine with a similar £ has still
legible SET
FLOREN
TIVS
commonly read -s et Florentius.
INDEX.
ABERCORN, 184, 189
Abernethy, 119, 202
Adamnan, St., 144 — 147
„ Life of St. Columba,
80, I3S—H3
, , book, Concerning the
Holy Places, 145,
148 — 151
, , transformation of
name, 147
Adamnan of Coldingham, 186
Adrian, St., 74, 198
Aebba, St., 170, 185, 187
Aebba, another abbess of that
name, 199
Aelred, biographer of Ninian,
23
Aid the Black, 253
Aidan, King, 102
Aidan, St., 159, 177, 261
Ailbe, St., 69
Alban, term, how applied, II
Aldfrid, King, 144
Aldhame, 72
Aldhelrn, St., 71
Altus of St. Columba, 87, 321
-328
Amhra Choluimchille, 104, in
•an, as a suffix, 86
Angels, prominence given to
agency of, 220
Antonine, rampart of, 12
Apurcrossan, 120, 152
Architecture, early Celtic, 293
-296
Arculf, Bishop, of Gaul, 148 —
ISI
Ard-comarb, 129
Artgaile, King, 152
Bachnl More, the, 312
Baithene, 116, 128, 133
Baldred, St., 71
Ballachulish, wooden figure
found at, 22
Bamborough, 144, 160
Banchory-Ternan, 47
Bangor (in Down), 104
Bangor, Antiphonary of, 212,
240
Bards, Irish, 103
Bee-hive cells, 293, 294
Bells, Celtic, 304 — 311
Birr, Synod of, 145
Black Rood, the, 288
Blaithmac, 154
Boece, Hector, 45
Boisil, St., 1 68
Brechin, 202
Brigid, St., 71, 97, 171, 259
Britius, St., 71
Brude, King, 92, 96
Cainnech, St., 97
Calpornius, 35
Candida Casa, 26, 29, 30, 191
Canice, St., 97
Cathach, St. Columba's Psalter,
3i8
Caves, Christian symbols in,
502
336
INDEX.
Cenn Cruaich, the idol, 22
Ceolfrid, 145, 146
Chad, St., 1 60
Ciaran, St., 69
Clog Rinny, 31, 305, 309
Clonard, 87
Coinitudt meaning of word, 103
Coldingham, 170, 185, 186, \
188, 199
Coleraine, battle of, 104
Colman, frequency of name,
86
Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne,
178—180
Columba, St., 80—121
Columban of Luxeuil, 232
Columban Mocu Loigse, 228
Columban monasteries in Scot
land, 119, 120
Comarb, 128
Comgall, St., 97, 104
Communion in both kinds, 239
Consecration, by one bishop, 89
, , per saltum, 89
Cooldrevny, battle of, 94
Copying of books, 132
Gorman, 158
Coroticus, 34
Cronan, Bishop, 252
Crosses, sculptured Celtic, 299
Croziers, Celtic, 311—316
Culdees, see Keledei
Culross, 47
Cnmdach, a book shrine, 317 —
319
Cuthbert, St., 161—176
Dalian Forgaill, 103, 104, 108,
no
Dalmeny, 147
Dalriada, 91
Dalriada, British, 96, 103
David, St., of Menevia, 56
Dead, prayers for, 226
Declan, St., 69
Decurion, office of, 35
Deer, Book of, 239, 248, 249
Demons, prominence given to
agency of, 220
Desert, 181, 303
Diarmit, 114, 117, 118, 133
Diarmit, King, 253
Donnan, St., 120
Dorbbene, 232
Dornoch, 202
Drumceatt, Synod of, 103, 260
Druids, 99
Dryhthelm, story of, 181
D unbar, 189
Dunblane, 202
Duncan, King, 267
Dunfermline, 279
Dunkeld, 119, 155, 202
Dunnichen, battle of, 189
Eadfrid, Bishop of Lindisfarne,
'83
Easter controversy, 245
Eata, 1 60, 1 68
Egfrid, King, 185, 188, 190
Eigg, 120
Eilean-na-Naoimh, 112, 119,
294
Enoch, St., 32, 53, 54
Episcopate in Celtic Church,
250
Ermenburga, 188
Etchen, Bishop, 88
Ethelfrid, 157
Ethelreda, Queen, 185
Ethelwold, Abbat of Mel rose,
182
Eucharist, 218
,, peculiar rites, 235
238
Fasting, 131
Finan, Bishop, 177
INDEX.
337
Findchan, 253
Finnian, St., of Clonard, 87
Finnian, St., of Moville, 86
Fordun, 40
Fordun, John of, 40
Fortrenn, 155
Fothad, Bishop, 289
Gall, St., 71
Gemman, 87
German, St., Bishop of Auxerre,
210
Gildas, 243
Gruoch, 268
Hadrian, wall of, 12
Heathenism, character of Cel
tic, 21, 98
Hexham, see of, 191
Hilda, St., double monastery
of, 171
Ibar, St., 69
Inishowen, 90
Inismurray, 95
Innisboffin, monastery on, 179
Invocation of saints, 225
lona, physical features of, 122—
125
,, origin of name, 127
,, ravaged by Danes, 153
Jocelyn, Bishop of Glasgow, 51
Jocelyn, monk of Furness, 51
,, his Life of St. Patrick,
70
,, character of his Life
of Kentigern, 64 — 73
Keledei, 201 — 207
Kenneth, St., 97
Kenneth Mac Alpine, King, 154
Kentigern, St., life of, 49—58
Kilfinichen, 254
Kilwinning, 88
Kingarth, 120
Kirkmadrine, monumental
sculptures at, 15
Lanfranc, Archbishop, 282
Leader Water, 161
Lent, beginning of, 282
Lex Innocentinm, 194
Lindisfarne, physical features of,
159
,, ravaged by Danes,
153
,, Gospels, 183
Lismore, island of, 119, 202
Lochleven, St. Serf's Isle in,
202, 280
Lochmaree, 121
Loup, St., BishopofTroyes,2io
Macbeth, 267
Machar, St., 120
Maelrubha, St., 120
Magi, 99
Major, John, 73
Malcolm Canmore, 271
Margaret, St., 267 — 291
Margaret, St., Gospel book of,
273, 331
Maude, Queen, 270, 276
May, Isle of, 197
Mayo, English monastery of,
179
Melrose, 160, 180, 184, 199
Missal, the Stowe, 230, 231
Mixed chalice, 232
Mo, prefix, 69, 312
Moinen, St., 69
Molaise, St., 95
Moluag, St., 120, 312
Monan, St., 199
Monasticism, introduced by
"Ninian, 28
Monifieth, 202
y
338
INDEX.
Monks, military service of, 105
Monnena, St., 72
Monymusk, 202
Muintir Cholidmckilltt 128
Mulling, Book of, 240
Mungo, St., 49—58
Mungo, meaning of name, 54
Muthill, 202
Mylne, Alexander, 203
Naiton, King, 146
Niall Frassach, King, 152
Niduari Picts, 170
Ninian, St. , life and labours of,
24—28
Clave, St., 201
Olave Tryggvesen, King, 200
Opus Anglic it Hi) 280
Ordain, use of word, 262
Oronsay, 95, 119
Oswald, King, 140, 157, 158
Oswy, King, 178
P.illadius, legend of, 40 — 46
Patrick, St., early history of,
34, 39
„ „ bells of, 224, 305
,, „ writings of, 33, 34,
39, 211—217
Pelagiamsm among the Britons,
209
Picts, a Celtic race, 18
Polaire, bo ok -cover, 319
Potitus, 35
Regulus, St., legend of, 329
Ringan, corruption of Ninian,
31
Ripon, 161, 167
Ritual of Celtic Church, 233
Ronan, 177
Ronecht, the, 46
Rosmarky, 202
Rosnat, monastery of, 32
Round Towers, 296
St. Andrews, Keledei at, 202
Sanda, 147
Scannlan Mor, 104
Scotia, a name for Ireland, 20
Scribes, honour paid to, 317
Serf, St., 47, 74
Skye, Isle of, 136
Tara, Synod of, 145
Teilo, St., 72
Ternan, St., 46
Teviot, River, 172
Thenew, Thenog, see Enoch, St.
Tine, River, 165
Tiree, 119, 124
Tonsure, Celtic form of, 241
Trumwin, Bishop, 189
Tuathal, Abbat, 155
Turgot, Prior of Durham, 271
Tynynghame, 72, 184
Ultan, St., 69
Valentia, Roman province of, 13
Vinnin, 88
Walafrid Strabo, 154, 232
Whithorn, ancient cross at, 18
Wilfrid, 185, 189
York, Colidei at, 205
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